N‑able's Adlumin MDR Helps Prevent Ransomware Attack for Ventnor City, New Jersey Within 6 Hours of Deployment
Challenge
James E. Pacanowski II, the IT manager for Ventnor City, had to deal with a ransomware attack on the institution, while he was away on a family vacation. His malware and antivirus systems at that time did not give him any type of notification. The incident urged Ventnor City to add additional cybersecurity and backup and data recovery services to their infrastructure.
Results
Adding Adlumin MDR to their security stack helped prevent another cyber attack within 6 hours after deployment. N‑sight, the unified management console for all endpoints they are using, together with Adlumin MDR and Cove Data Protection brought ease of mind, 24/7.
24/7
ease of mind
<6hours
proven efficiency after deployment
About Ventor City
Ventnor City is situated on the Jersey Shore, in the state of New Jersey. The township oversees several institutions including City Hall and the Police Department, spread across 8 different locations, and consists of approximately 200 endpoints. It has one CGCIO to manage its entire IT infrastructure and uses a trusted IT services reseller for advice on IT solutions, like cybersecurity, cloud security, data management, compliance, and more.
Ventor City
Founded in: 1903
- N‑able solutions:
- N-sight RMM ,
- Adlumin Managed Detection and Response ,
- Cove Data Protection ,
- Endpoint Detection and Response ,
- Mail Assure ,
- Passportal ,
- Take Control
Knowing that there’s somebody 24/7 monitoring what’s going on with my system has made things a whole lot easier for me.
James E. Pacanowski II CGCIO and the network administrator, Ventnor City
Challenge
James E. Pacanowski II, the CGCIO and the network administrator for Ventnor City, serves as the sole IT manager. He is responsible for ongoing improvements, as well as fixing any problems that may arise.
In February 2024, while on a family vacation, James received the dreaded news that staff members in his organization could not log into their computers. He soon realized that Ventnor City was subject to a ransomware attack with the lock bit 2.0.
“That totally destroyed my whole weekend because I spent that entire day talking with lawyers and attorneys to begin the process. But my biggest concern was that my current malware and antivirus systems did not give me any type of notification,” says James.
He recalls having different systems in place at that time, including malware detection and backup. However, when trying to restore the servers, the most recent usable backup was from 5 months ago.
“We were only really down 100% for like two or three days. But it did take us about 5 weeks to fully re-image and replace all of the workstations and have everything back up and running,” recalls James.
The ransomware attack resulted in an estimated loss of 200 to 300 man-hours across the team, including both the primary IT manager and supporting consultants. Additionally, the organization incurred a financial loss totaling several hundred thousand dollars, factoring in lost time, productivity, and the costs of replacing compromised equipment.
Solution
At that time, Ventnor City was using N‑able’s N‑sight Unified Endpoint Management solution based on the advice of their IT services reseller. They were assessing whether to add additional cybersecurity and backup and data recovery services to their infrastructure. The decision was made to move to N‑able MDR, immediately after they got everything back up and running following the attack.
Results
“I can confidently say that Adlumin MDR proved its value within the first six hours of deployment. We received alerts that our Police Department was being hit thousands of times by somebody trying to get in. Adlumin MDR notified us immediately and we isolated that workstation before the intruders were able to get into our network and do any damage,” says James E Pacanowski II.
While being part of the same township, the Police Department needed to create a separate tenant and have their own IT person monitoring and managing their end points. With N‑able, they could easily create one tenant for the Police Department and another one for the city. With backup fresh on his mind, James also decided to use Cove Data Protection to back up local workstations for all department heads: city clerk, tax assessor, tax collector, city administrator, fire brigade chief.
“That’s for my ease of mind. Allows me to sleep better at night knowing that data is being backed up,” adds James.
While attending a conference in August 2024, just a few months after the initial attack, James was notified by the IT person of the Police Department that another attack attempt had occurred. He got notifications saying somebody was in there trying to log into their systems. Adlumin MDR notified them in due time again which prevented any damage.
“Adlumin MDR has paid for itself twice already and has done a lot of things,” completes James.
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