Were warnings about the need for stronger cybersecurity in Baltimore City government missed?

The city's systems remain hobbled by an 8-day-old ransomware attack.

A year ago, a city information technology official gave a blunt assessment of the shortfalls of the city's cybersecurity effort, but did anything change? Gayle Guilford, a manager of the city's IT department, spoke at a Baltimore City Council hearing.

"You are quite correct, we are going to get sued," she said May 29, 2018.

Guilford told the council the cybersecurity effort was understaffed, underfunded and in need of updates.

"We would also need to upgrade our firewall systems, which have been in place for seven years," Guilford said.

City officials will not give details of the city's cybersecurity system, citing the investigation of the ransomware attack.

At a briefing Wednesday, the city's IT director, Frank Johnson, could give no date when systems might be restored.

"We will be back online and we will be back online more safely and securely than we were before," Johnson said.

City officials would not answer questions about the strategy they are using to get systems affected by the attack back online.

"The process we are following is what you could quantify as industry best practice," Johnson said.

Pay systems are most affected by the attack. Police officers are spending more time filling the tank of their patrol cars because the electronic pay system is down.

City real estate transactions remain on hold as the city cannot access needed records for settlement. City officials said they are working with the attorney general to regain access to the needed documents.

"Hopefully, we are looking at late next week, but there are no guarantees. It depends on what we find as we try to gain access to the databases," Baltimore City Solicitor Andre Davis said.

City officials said Wednesday it is safe to use city websites.

"Yes, it is, and people should look at the websites frequently for updates," Davis said.

The current city budget for information technology does call for some security upgrades, but no specifics were offered.

One other thing the city is planning a possible contingency for is property tax payments, which become due starting July 1 and are often paid electronically through the mortgage servicer.