City of Tulsa says ransomware attack similar in nature to pipeline cyberattack

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — The City of Tulsa is having to relearn how to do their jobs without computers.

"We have shut out computer systems at the city down to prevent any spread of that malware on our networks," said Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum.

The city today announcing this piece of ransomware got into the system on April 21.

"At this point, we don't know patient zero. That's part of the forensic investigation going on right now," said Michael Dellinger, Tulsa's Chief Information Officer.

Tulsa's back-to-basics approach will help isolate the problem and fix it. But it will affect a number of services, including fire and police response times.

"The process of public safety and of everything else that we do at the city of Tulsa is impacted by this," said Bynum.

What is also getting attention from citizens is a jump in prices at the gas pump. City officials say our attack bears some similarity to the attack that has crippled the Colonial Pipeline.

"There's such a huge volume of fluid that is being pumped that there's no way that sending it by truck is going to get them what they need," said Dewey Bartlett.

Bartlett, president of Keener Oil & Gas has been watching the cyberattack on the pipeline and says price increases at the pump may happen, but it could have been worse. What if it had been Cushing, which supplies petroleum as far away as California?

"I'm sure, I hope, but I'm sure that all the people who are involved that somehow touch Cushing, Oklahoma are aware of what's happened and they're certainly looking at their whole site to make sure they're safe," said Bartlett.

Bartlett says cyberattacks are not infrequent on pipelines or cities. He said when he was mayor, they'd fend off a dozen or more attacks a day. Now, it's grown by magnitudes.

"We get near to 60,000 a day that comes from an email source. As for firewall attacks, those are also into the thousands," said Dellinger.

Tulsa may be temporarily crippled, but they say their preventative measures successfully block those attacks on a daily basis.