H A P P Y I N D E P E N D E N C E D AY
H A P PY INDEPENDENCE DAY
Thursday, July 4, 2024 ~ Volume 69 ~ Issue Number 31 ~ $1.00
County Legislature Grapples with
Cybersecurity Issues
Amid Testimony from Lisa Black By Cait Crudden
The Suffolk County Legislature convened a crucial cybersecurity meeting, grappling with the aftermath of the 2022 ransomware attack that targeted the county’s systems. At the center of the discussion was testimony from Lisa Black, the former Chief Deputy County Executive, whose account of the events during the cyber-attack raised eyebrows and frustrations among lawmakers. The meeting, held in Riverhead, sought to shed light on the details surrounding the ransomware attack that crippled Suffolk County’s operations for several weeks in 2022. Lisa Black, a key figure during the crisis, appeared before the legislature and testified for nearly three-and-a-half hours. “We did a lot of very important work together and we can take pride in the fact that ultimately this event impacted less than 2% of county systems, all backups are retained or restored, or rebuilt, and this county did not pay a ransom to criminal actors,” said Black in Riverhead last week. The attack is known for taking multiple county systems and websites offline for months, as well as exposing the personal information of over 400,000 people. Black and former members of the previous administration continue to maintain that the compromising hack came from a specific type of vulnerability that originated in the County Clerk’s Office. Legislator Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville) (Credit - Matt Meduri)
Continued on page 10
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: A Port Jeff Prom to Remember By Matt Meduri
Prom season is one the greatest highlights of any student’s high school experience, if not the greatest. Often seen as the quintessential end-of-an-era party, the anticipation for the event is easily on par, if not exceeded, by the preparation, planning, and coordination for such a large-scale event. But Port Jefferson High School seniors are annually treated with a much larger ceremony, an amalgam of community members, volunteers, and even local government to pull off their larger-than-life high-school send-off event. Monday evening was the highly successful culmination of nearly nine months of planning and coordination of the Prom Committee. Over ninety students, 140 when dates were included, rolled up in limousines, luxury vehicles, and even an ice cream truck to walk the red carpet into Earl L. Vandermeulen High School. Inside, the basketball court and surrounding halls were transformed into an underwater scene straight out of Jules Verne’s classical novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Continued on page 15
The inside of the basketball court at Earl L. Vandermeulen High School (Credit - Matt Meduri)
FULL STORIES ON:
Town Initiative to Curb Illegal Dumping Page 3
Flood Addresses Kennedy Releases School Bus Audits Newfield Graduates Page 4
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