INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The federal agency that gives low-income housing in Indianapolis is facing a ransomware attack that is delayed its ability to send out rent payments to landlords, a top agency official says.
All employees of the Indianapolis Housing Agency lost access to their email in the course of the attack, which began weeks ago. That features its executive director, Marcia Lewis, who lost access to her email for days but regained access to it Tuesday, The Indianapolis Star reported, citing an email she sent the newspaper.
Lewis said an investigation by information technology security experts, law enforcement, and the agency’s IT service providers is underway, and the attack was still ongoing as of Wednesday.
The housing agency has not released details in regards to the motive or identity of the individuals behind the ransomware attack, which uses malware to lock up a victim organization’s files and leverage the knowledge for a payment.
The attack delayed the Indianapolis Housing Agency’s ability to send out October rent payments to landlords for the federal housing selection voucher program, also often called Section 8, which 8,000 Indianapolis families rely on.
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That federal program provides rental assistance to very low-income families, the elderly, and disabled individuals for housing on the private market. The Indianapolis Housing Agency administers this system for Indianapolis.
Lewis said that as Monday the agency successfully made all October rent payments to Section 8 landlords. But within the previous week, staff needed to manually send out client utility allowance checks and important vendor payments since the agency’s IT system was down.
Lewis said the agency is on the right track to finish all November rent payments on time.
“It has been our focus to make sure recipients weren’t being negatively impacted and that we could bring our systems back to normal,” she wrote in her email.
The housing agency is currently working to deal with late fees on account of the delayed Section 8 payments. Lewis said she doesn’t have an estimate of the full cost of those late fees.
Based on U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations regarding Section 8, landlords may not evict tenants for nonpayment by the agency, including in the present case.
About 25,000 people rely on the Indianapolis Housing Agency for various housing advantages, either through Section 8 or by living in considered one of the agency-owned public housing buildings.
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