New Haven chief information officer, Gildemar Herrera, Information Technology Director has been dismissed from his position almost one year after the hackers conducted a colossal cyber heist of more than $6 million from the city’s accounts. The hack was performed in May 2023 when the attackers got the login credentials to the e-mail box used by the chief operating officer of New Haven’s public schools. Using this access the cyber criminals eavesdropped on conversations, steal the identity of city officials and even perform fake requests for electronic transfers to other accounts.
Six transactions were made and all were fraudulent although four payments were made amounting to $5. 9 million for the First Student which is quite an important transportation service for the city schools. The other two memos, totaling $76 000 were meant for a law firm that represented New Haven Public Schools. The discovery of the full extent of the breach was made when First Student organization made some inquiries to the city officials concerning delayed payments.
After a long administrative process, the defendant was dismissed from the position of the IT Director because of the unsatisfactory performance of the duties. Subsequently, city superintendent Madeline Negrón disclosed that the city has implemented measures to enhance its cybersecurity measures by recruiting the chief technology officer besides engaging outside professionals in the evaluation and enhancement of the cybersecurity and especially the financial matters.
According to thesame source, the city has so far been able to retrieve $5. One million of the stolen funds were also returned by the scammer. FBI and regional police are still searching for the culprits of the cyber attack with the aim to punish them. Milford Mayor Justin Elicker said that the city would increase its efforts to protect against further breaches of this nature in the future.