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Virgin Islands Lottery resumes drawings after ransomware attack; director urges IT investment and staffing
Summary
The Virgin Islands Lottery told lawmakers it suffered a territorywide ransomware attack in March, rebuilt core systems from backups and resumed drawings in late April; executive director Raymond J. Williams urged continued investment in cybersecurity, staffing and BIT integration.
Raymond J. Williams, executive director of the Virgin Islands Lottery, told the Committee on Government Operations on June 1 that the lottery's systems were taken offline by a ransomware attack in mid‑March and that staff and contracted IT consultants spent weeks rebuilding systems from backups to resume drawings and payments.
Williams said the March 17 incident was identified when staff arrived at district offices and found servers and software encrypted; the commission's consultant SmartPoint Inc. confirmed the ransomware and a ransom note demanding payment. Williams said the attackers encrypted phones, servers and software in both districts and the incident was reported to the Bureau of Information Technology (BIT) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). "There was a ransom note found that basically said, if you want your encrypted information back, they would return same for a fee of a million dollars," Williams said.
The recovery and current status
- Rebuilding from backups: Williams told the committee the lottery…
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