City lets staff use computers again Some departments had to work on paper after network was breached.

The city of Atlanta advised its employees Tuesday that they could begin turning on their computers for the first time since Thursday’s cyberattack. Some city departments had

been forced to revert to working on paper after someone breached the city’s computer network, encrypted data and demanded $51,000 in return for unlocking it. “It is expected that some com

puters will operate as usual and employees will return to normal use,” a city news release said. “It is also expected that some computers may be affected or affected in some way and employees will

continue using manual or alternative processes. This is part of the City’s ongoing assessment as part of the restoration and recovery process.”

At a news conference at City Hall on Monday, an outside com

puter security consultant for the city of Atlanta said his firm had completed the “investigation and containment phases” in response to the cyberattack. Michael R. Cote, president and

CEO of Secureworks, an Atlanta-based firm called in to assist the city, said the city was transitioning into the recovery phase.

The city’s Department of Atlanta Information Management at 5:40 a.m. Thursday learned of outages of various internal and customer applications “includ

ing some applications customers use to pay bills or access court related information,” according to a statement from Richard Cox, the city’s interim chief of operations.

The public safety department, water services and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport operated without incident, Cox said. However, the airport turned off its Wi-Fi following the hack.

As of Monday, employees in five of the city’s 13 departments were performing their jobs “manually” or are not able to function as efficiently as they have in the past.

Those departments include Corrections, Watershed Management, Human Resources, Parks and Recreation and City Planning.

The Department of Watershed Management was unable to accept bill payments online or in person or process new water

meter sales.