SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Suffolk County's Cyberattack

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk County government’s computer network was struck on September 8 by a massive cyberattack, and last week—three weeks later and hoping it was over—the county began what a spokesperson termed a “rolling restoration” of computer operations. 

The county government’s websites, email and other online systems were taken offline immediately after the cyberattack. Still, last week, most county computers remained shut. 

“Anything we have done has had to be manual,” County Comptroller John M. Kennedy, Jr. of Nesconset told me last week. 

Suffolk government has had to go back to using paper.

Its Information Technology division is involved in dealing with the cyberattack and the FBI has joined in.

Meanwhile, the hackers leaked county documents including details about businesses that have had contracts with the county and county records containing personal information of people including sensitive information such as their addresses and dates of birth. 

County government advised residents to periodically check their credit reports from one of the national credit reporting companies and look for “suspicious” activity.

The hackers have been threatening to leak more if Suffolk County government did not pay an amount of money that has not been publicly disclosed.

The website DataBreaches.net which publishes information about data breaches—and under its title has the line “The Office of Inadequate Security”—has been providing details about Suffolk government hacking.

One dispatch from DataBreaches.net, dated September 16, was titled “NY: Suffolk County struggles to recover from BlackCat ransomware attack.” It stated: “Suffolk County on Long Island joined the ranks of those hit by a ransomware attack, and the results and impact are not surprising. One headline on September 13 somewhat said it all: ‘County IT systems crippled, with websites, email down, five days after discovery of cyberattack.’” (That headline was on the website RiverheadLocal.)

DataBreaches.net continued that “county officials were working to send out paper checks to pay county vendors” and “nonprofits contracted to perform social services were a high priority for payment.”

“Then a ransomware team stepped out of the shadows to claim responsibility for the attack,” said DataBreaches.net. “Variously called ALPHV or ‘BlackCat,’ they issued a post on their dark web leak site.”

The ALPHV or BlackCat post, according to DataBreaches.net, was: “The Suffolk County Government was attacked. Along with the government network, the networks of several contractors were encrypted as well. Due to the fact that Suffolk County Government and the aforementioned companies are not communicating with us, we are publishing sample documents extracted from the government and contractor network.”

“The total volume of extracted files exceeds 4TB,” it said. TB in computer terms stands for terabyte. “A terabyte (TB) is a unit of digital data that is equal to about 1 trillion bytes,” explains the website Techtarget.com. 

The post from the hackers went on: “Extracted files include Suffolk County Court records, sheriff’s office records, contracts with the State of New York and other personal data of Suffolk County citizens. We also have huge databases of Suffolk County citizens extracted from the clerk.county.suf. domain in the county administration.”

“The post,” added DataBreach.net, “was accompanied by screencaps of various files that appear to have been exfiltrated from county systems.” Some of those files are then displayed in screen shots and thus are now accessible online.

The Suffolk County Police Department called upon the New York City Police Department for help and it sent 10 operators to assist the Suffolk department’s Communications Section. “While operations have continued, our emergency call operators had been operating around the clock and unfortunately had to go back to our old system where call details were recorded by hand,” said Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison. The county’s Traffic Agency has been unable to process outstanding tickets. Civil service exams were postponed. 

And this was just part of the cyberspace mess being faced.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP : Rising Sea Level Is A Problem For Long Island

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“The water is coming—there’s no longer much doubt about that,” began an article in The Washington Post this month. A just-issued analysis, it reported, done by Climate Central, a Princeton, New Jersey-based non-profit research group, determined that “hundreds of thousands of homes….and other properties” would “slip below swelling tide lines over the next few decades.”

That increased sea level rise is already happening.

And, the Climate Central researchers found, said The Post, that “nearly 650,000 individual, privately-owned parcels across as many as 4.4 million acres of land” along the coastlines of the United States “are projected to fall below changing tidal boundaries by 2050. The land affected could swell to 9.1 million acres by 2100.”

Long Island will be among the areas heavily affected.

Indeed, the East Hampton Town Board this month, in a unanimous vote, approved a Coastal Assessment Resilience Plan (CARP), “in recognition of the need for proactive planning to address its vulnerabilities to sea level rise, shoreline erosion and flooding.” CARP, an analysis put together over two years, flatly warned that the projected range of sea level rise “will transform East Hampton into a series of islands with permanent submergence of low-lying areas as early as 2070.” 

It says: “Rising sea levels and increased intensity of coastal storms undoubtedly will have an impact on nearshore homes and communities.”

CARP proposes a “retreat” of waterfront development away from the shoreline.

And that is a breakthrough for this area.

Perhaps “retreat” isn’t the best word to use. In a prescient talk in Suffolk County in 2013, titled “Alternatives for Protecting Our Dunes and Beaches,” Dr. Robert Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University and co-author of the then recently published book, The Rising Sea, said “I don’t say ‘retreat’ anymore.” That’s because Americans, he said, don’t like to talk about retreating. Said Young: “No, we say relocate.”

Whether it’s called “retreat” or “relocate”—that is what is needed in the face of rising seas largely caused by melting glaciers caused by global warming.  

Still, despite the realism out of East Hampton, all over Long Island, says Kevin McAllister, founder and president of the Sag Harbor-based organization Defend H20, in an effort to ostensibly protect houses built along coasts, what’s now happening is a “rapid transformation of natural shorelines” with the placement of steel and vinyl bulkheads, geotextile sandbags and giant boulders.” 

This effort at “armoring” shorelines, says McAllister, “if left unchecked will erase walkable beaches and critical shoreline habit”—and also lead to more coastal erosion as armoring, in fact, ends up accelerating coastal erosion.

In a number of states, the folly of coastal armoring is being recognized. Stateline, the web publication of Pew Charitable Trusts, published an article last year about Virginia and Washington having “recently enacted laws to discourage armoring structures and promote ‘living’ shorelines which use natural elements to slow erosion and maintain habitats.” 

Stateline said “seawalls and bulkheads…known collectively as shoreline armoring, can block the natural flow of sand and sediment down the coast and multiply the forces of waves onto nearby shoreline—accelerating erosion elsewhere.”

The New York Times last week reported on how “a little-noticed section” of recent climate legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden marks “a shift by the federal government toward funding nature-based climate solutions.” It said: “Escalating climate threats have prompted a continuing debate among policymakers and experts about how best to guard against devastating damage, between those who prioritize building manmade infrastructure like sea walls—sometimes called “gray infrastructure”—and those who favor nature-based solutions, or so-called green infrastructure.”

Long Island is far from alone. A headline this month in USA Today: “Oceans rise, houses fall. The California beach home is turning into a nightmare.” Its story said: “Tens of thousands of people who live along California’s coast may be forced to flee in coming decades as climate change leads to rising seas and makes swaths of the state’s iconic coast uninhabitable.”

Harmonizing with nature and relocating structures built in the teeth of the sea, both are essential as seas rise. Still, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is allowing armoring all over Long Island with “permissive permitting,” says McAllister. And many local boards, he says, aren’t doing much better. 

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Cyberattack In Suffolk County Personal Information Accessed

On or about September 8, 2022, Suffolk County determined that its systems had been affected by what appeared to be a cyberattack. While the cyber assessment remains ongoing, we believe that the threat actors accessed and/or acquired certain personal information from one or more County agency servers. The County promptly hired multiple cybersecurity firms to conduct an examination to protect employees and residents as well as restore online services.

The County will notify any affected individuals as required by law, and all of those affected individuals will be offered free identity theft protection services. However, because the assessment is ongoing, Suffolk County wants to ensure that employees, residents and stakeholders are informed about precautionary measures they can take to help them protect themselves from becoming victims of fraud or identity theft.

What Can You Do?

Review Your Accounts and Credit Reports

You should regularly review statements from your accounts and periodically obtain your credit report from one or more of the national credit reporting companies. When you receive your credit report, look it over with care. If you notice anything suspicious – accounts you did not open, inquiries from creditors that you did not initiate, personal information such as a home address or Social Security number that is not accurate – or you see anything you do not understand, call the credit reporting agency at the number listed in the report. If you find fraudulent or suspicious activity in your credit reports, you should promptly report the matter to the proper law enforcement authorities.

Follow the steps recommended below for reporting fraudulent or suspicious activity.

Place a Fraud Alert on your Credit Files

If you are interested in protection against the possibility of identity theft, we recommend that you place a fraud alert on your credit files. A fraud alert conveys a special message to anyone requesting your credit report that you suspect that you may be a victim of fraud. When you or someone else attempts to open a credit account in your name, the lender should take measures to verify that you have authorized the request. A fraud alert should not stop you from using your existing credit cards or other accounts, but it may slow down your ability to get new credit. An initial fraud alert is valid for ninety (90) days. To place a fraud alert on your credit reports, contact one of the three major credit reporting agencies at the appropriate number listed below or via their website. One agency will notify the other two on your behalf. You will then receive letters from the agencies with instructions on how to obtain a free copy of your credit report from each.

• Equifax (888)766-0008 or www.fraudalert.equifax.com
• Experian (888) 397-3742 or www.experian.com
• TransUnion (800) 680-7289 or www.transunion.com

Place a Security Freeze on your Credit Reports

New York residents can also consider placing a Security Freeze on their credit reports. A Security Freeze prevents most potential creditors from viewing your credit reports and therefore, further restricts the opening of unauthorized accounts. For more information on placing a security freeze on your credit reports, please go to the New York Department of State Division of Consumer Protection website at https://dos.nysits.acsitefactory.com/consumer-protection.

Remain Vigilant

Even if you do not find signs of fraud on your credit reports, we recommend that you remain vigilant in reviewing your credit reports from the three major credit reporting agencies. You may obtain a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com, calling toll-free 877-322-8228 or by completing an Annual Credit Request Form at: www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/consumer/credit/rights.shtm and mailing to:

Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 1025281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5283

For more information on identity theft, you can visit the following websites:

• New York Department of State Division of Consumer Protection https://dos.nysits.acsitefactory.com/consumer-protection
• NYS Attorney General http://www.ag.ny.gov/home.html
• Federal Trade Commission www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Electric Vehicles Are The Future

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified,” declared President Biden in a speech at the Detroit Auto Show last week. His administration’s aim, he said, is to have half the vehicles sold in the United States by 2030—that’s less than eight years away!—be electric-powered. It a central part of the fight against climate change with carbon emissions from cars and trucks a major cause of global warming.

Only five percent of Americans now drive electric cars. Under the Biden program—which provides for an array of auto industry and consumer incentives including rebates—that percentage is to be dramatically increased.

 “It is all changing,” said Biden. “Today, if you want an electric vehicle with a long range, you can buy one made in America.” He pointed to the many new “zero-emission” (of carbon) cars on the floor of the show and drove one of them, an electric Cadillac.

As to charging stations—vital if the plan is ultimately for everybody in the U.S. to be driving electric vehicles—a program was announced at the show involving the installation of 500,000 electric chargers through the nation by 2030 using $7.5 billion authorized by Congress. “Charging stations will be up and as easy to find as gas stations are now,” said Biden.

The transportation scene in Suffolk County will be deeply altered by the change.

An example: already, the New York State Department of Transportation has altered its “Clean Pass” program for Long Island’s main thoroughfare, the Long Island Expressway. This past February, it announced that “new Clean Pass stickers will only be issued to Plug-In Electric and Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles.” This would impact on the use of the LIE’s HOV lane.

My “hybrid” Toyota Prius doesn’t have a “plug-in” component so after 210,000 (trouble-free) miles, my next car will be a “plug-in.”

Electric cars have taken a long time coming. In the early 90s, I did a show on electric cars in one of the nationally-aired “Enviro Close-Up” TV programs I’ve hosted for more than three decades. Featured was a car manufactured by a small company in Massachusetts, and I was amazed, driving it, by its fast pick-up and substantial power. 

Today one sees many electric cars manufactured by that now giant company Tesla, with the stylized T on their nose (for inventor Nicola Tesla who did so much of his visionary work in Suffolk at his laboratory in Wading River). Jumping into building electric cars before the major auto manufacturers (these days they’re actively joining in) was key in making Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, Inc. the richest man in the world as of last year.

This summer, an excellent hour-and-a-half event titled “Electric Vehicles: Everything You Need to Know” was held at the LTV television studios in Wainscott, aired on LTV and via Zoom, and is now also on YouTube. You can view the event on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSeV7SFMSm4  

It was moderated by journalist Biddle Duke who opened it by saying “America’s transportation fleet is undoubtedly going electric…This is going to be cleaner and more efficient, less expensive, quieter and user friendly. There was a panel including experts in electric vehicles and folks who own EV’s who told of their experiences, speaking with affection about their electric cars. The event in July was organized by the Town of East Hampton’s Natural Resources Department in cooperation with the Energize East Hampton initiative.

East Hampton Councilwoman Cate Rogers told of how “I leased my first electric vehicle in 2017. Its range was 100 miles…Fast forward a few years and the improvements are staggering.” She just ordered, she said, a 2022 Volkswagen electric car “with a range of 275 miles and a fast-charger time of 70 miles in 10 minutes.”

Many of the new electric cars have ranges of 500 miles and more.

Rogers said of the LTV event that people linking to it and learning about electric vehicles is “an important step both for yourself, your family and our planet.” 

Check it out. The information about what will change in our way of traveling—and do much to combat climate change—is important indeed.

Says Gordian Raacke, co-founder of the Energize East Hampton Initiative and executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island: “Electric vehicles are the future. We will all be driving them in the next couple of decades if we choose to drive a car.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Suffolk's Red Flag Laws

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Amid the latest series of mass shootings in the United States, The New York Times ran a front-page story headlined: “Taking guns From Those in Crisis: A County’s ‘Red Flag’ Lessons.”

Guess what county was being reported on? It was Suffolk County.

The article, which also covered a full page inside the newspaper, started with: “The boy made his threat aboard a school bus.” And it related how in “late March, “a 16-year-old in Suffolk County, N.Y…told fellow students that he wanted to shoot their heads off, according to court records. He told the police that he wanted to hurt himself with a shotgun at his house.”

“What followed happens more often in Suffolk County than any other county in the state: a judge issued a ‘red flag’ order that would allow authorities to take weapons from the home,” it continued. “The judge acted after finding that he posed a danger. Two shotguns were taken. The judge later wrote that the boy ‘admitted that not having the shotguns in the home is helpful to him.’”

The June 10^th piece said: “In the wake of horrific mass shootings at a Buffalo supermarket, a Texas school and an Oklahoma hospital, many policymakers are grasping for ways to keep guns out of hands of people in crisis.”

And it noted that during that week President Biden “implored Congress to pass a federal red flag law, though such measures face stiff resistance from Republicans who contend the red flag process can be abused to take away an innocent person’s fundamental right to own guns.”   

            Legislation—titled the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Act—providing for a “red flag” process involving federal courts passed in the House of Representatives, but not in the U.S. Senate. Still, an 80-page safety bill subsequently passed both two weeks later—described by House Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as a “breakthrough” after decades of no major federal gun control legislation. 

It included a variety of elements tightening gun sales in the U.S. including expanded background checks for gun buyers under 21—and allocated $750 million over five years for “crisis intervention programs” by states including red flag programs.

It passed with several Republican lawmakers giving support, thus it was titled the Bipartisan Safety Communities Act. It was signed into law by President Biden on June 25th. “While this bill doesn’t do everything I want,” said Biden, “it does include actions I’ve long called for that are going to save lives. It funds crisis intervention, including red flag laws.”

However, what about states not interested in red flag laws?

As of now, 19 states have them. But there has been resistance in some states. In the House last year, Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas went as far as introducing a bill titled: Preventing Unjust Red Flag Laws Act. Under it, there would be a “prohibition” on federal “funding for implementation and enforcement of red flag laws or rules.” It sat in committee.

The first red flag law in the U.S. was enacted in Connecticut in 1999 after a seething Connecticut Lottery employee went on a rampage at its headquarters killing four lottery executives—including its president—and then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. 

In Suffolk County, as The Times related, since a New York State red flag law took effect in 2019, “more than 100 red flag cases” handled here “shows how” the law “has defused dozens of dangerous situations…Initiated by police officers, school officials and panicked family members, the Suffolk County cases sounded a drumbeat of domestic mayhem and potential disaster. They led to the removal of more than 160 guns, including at least five military-style rifles.”

Last month in Newsday, former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart and Gail Prudenti of Suffolk, the former state chief administrative judge, authored a guest essay headed: “Red flag laws can protect communities.” They wrote: “Extreme risk protection orders, or ERPOs—better known as ‘red flag’ laws—empower a limited group of people, such as law enforcement officers, household members and school staff, to petition the court for an order to temporarily confiscate guns from individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others and bar them from obtaining a firearm.”

They noted that New York Governor Kathy Hochul after “the massacre” in Buffalo directed the state police “to file for an ERPO whenever they have probable cause to believe that an individual is a threat, similar to the way doctors and teachers must alert authorities to potential child abuse.” 

 Red flag laws—notably successful in Suffolk—should be a national standard.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.