San Francisco Mayor's Office Emails on Muni Ransomware
| Submitted | Nov. 28, 2016 |
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Communications
From: Joseph Cox
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the California Public Records Act (California Government Code §§ 6250):
### Background ###
In November 2016, the San Francisco Muni faced a ransomware attack, and subsequent extortion attempts. A media report about the incident can be found here: https://motherboard.vice.com/read/san-fran-subway-hackers-now-threaten-to-publicly-dump-data
The email used by the hackers was cryptom27@yandex.com
### Request ###
I hereby request the following records:
- All emails sent to or received from cryptom27@yandex.com, from 1st November 2016 to the present.
- All internal emails concerning the ransomware incident, from 1st November 2016 to the present.
In order to help to determine my status to assess fees, you should know that I am a journalist writing for Motherboard, VICE's technology and science site, and that this request is being made as part of news gathering.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Joseph Cox
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Nov. 28, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: MayorSunshineRequests (MYR)
VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
Requestor: Joseph Cox
Email: requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>
December 8, 2016
Re: Public Records Request dated November 28, 2016
Dear Mr. Cox:
This letter responds to your Public Records Request sent to the Mayor’s office via email on November 28, 2016. In your request, you ask for the following from the Mayor’s Office:
1. “All emails sent to or received from cryptom27@yandex.com<mailto:cryptom27@yandex.com>, from 1st November 2016 to the present.”
2. “All internal emails concerning the ransomware incident, from 1st November 2016 to the present.”
Response dated December 8, 2016:
Attached please find electronic copies of all records in the possession of the Mayor’s Office responsive to your request. Please note that we are responding on behalf of the Mayor’s Office only, and not on behalf of other City departments.
Please note that some parts of the records provided to you were legally redacted to remove individuals’ personal phone numbers and personal email addresses. We are required to do so to protect the privacy interests of those individuals. Withholding information to protect privacy is authorized under California Constitution, Article I, section 1, and California Government Code Sections 6254(k) and 6254(c) (authorizing the withholding of records the disclosure of which would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy). See, also, California Government Code Section 6250 and Section 67.1(g) of the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance (legislative findings on the right of individuals to privacy).
If you have any questions regarding your request or would like to send another sunshine request, please do not hesitate to contact the Mayor’s Office at mayorsunshinerequests@sfgov.org<mailto:mayorsunshinerequests@sfgov.org>.
Sincerely,
Victor Wai Ho Lim | 林偉浩
Deputy Communications Director | 副主任
Mayor's Office of Communications | 市長新聞辦公室
From: Joseph Cox
Hey,
Thank you for the response, it's appreciated.
Joseph