Geneva (AFP)
The entire population of a small Swiss town saw their personal data exposed following a cyberattack, according to the daily Le Temps on Wednesday, and its municipality admitted to having initially underestimated the "gravity" of the attack.
The small town of Rolle (5,400 inhabitants), on the shores of Lake Geneva, admitted last week to having been the victim of a ransomware attack, which had affected data on some of its administrative servers.
But the municipality initially claimed that the amount of data affected was limited and could be recovered through backup copies.
The attack was "small" and had only affected mail servers that did not contain "sensitive" municipal data, Rolle's union representative (mayor), Monique Choulat Pugnale, told the 24 heures newspaper.
But according to an investigation by the daily Le Temps published Wednesday, it is in fact a "massive piracy".
The municipality of Rolle, which lodged a complaint, admitted late Wednesday to having "underestimated the severity of the attack, the potential for the use of data and the importance of transparency for the population of Rolls-Royce".
"She humbly acknowledges a certain naivety in the face of the issues represented by the darkweb and the management of malicious acts of hacking," adding that she has set up a "taskforce" to follow the file, according to a press release.
A sign at the entrance to the small town of Rolle in August 2017, in Switzerland Fabrice COFFRINI AFP / Archives
According to Le Temps, the stolen documents include tables listing information on residents, including their names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, even in some cases their religion or data on covid-19 infections.
© 2021 AFP