Pensacola confirms ransomware attack but provides few details

Enlarge / Pensacola, home of the Navy's flight school and a cyberwarfare training center, was still reeling from a mass shooting at the Naval Air Station when ransomware hit the city's network. (credit: Paul Harris / Getty Images)

On December 7—less than a day after a mass shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola—the city of Pensacola, Florida, was hit by what was originally described as a generic "cyber incident". A city spokesperson has since confirmed that ransomware had struck a number of the city's servers, taking down phones, email, electronic "311" service requests, and electronic payment systems.

Pensacola, with a population of 52,500 people, is in Florida's Gulf Coast "panhandle."  In addition to being the home of the US Navy's pilot training center, Pensacola is also, perhaps ironically, home of one of the training centers for the Navy's Information Warfare Training Command.

Pensacola public information spokesperson Kacee Lagarde said in a statement that the Pearl Harbor Day ransomware attack began in the early morning. Lagarde said:

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