Ransomware Recovery in Wichita, Kansas
If your systems are encrypted right now, the next few hours decide how much you get back. We are a Wichita based team that contains active ransomware, recovers systems, and handles the breach investigation and notification that follows. On site across Sedgwick County, on the phone in minutes, 24 hours a day.
Call 316-712-4006 316-712-4006The First Hour: What To Do Right Now
If ransom notes are appearing on screens, read this before you touch anything else. What happens in the first hour decides whether you recover from backups in days or negotiate for weeks.
The single most damaging instinct is to power everything off. Do not. Shutting a machine down destroys the volatile memory that identifies the ransomware strain and can hold encryption keys. Disconnect from the network instead, and leave the machines running.
Disconnect infected machines from the network. Pull the ethernet cable or switch off WiFi. Leave them powered on.
Do not reboot or shut anything down. Memory can contain keys and attacker artifacts that vanish on power loss.
Isolate your backups immediately. Disconnect backup drives and cut network access to backup servers before the attacker reaches them.
Disable remote access. Turn off VPN and RDP so the attacker cannot walk back in while you are working.
Do not delete the ransom note or the encrypted files. They identify the strain and are needed for recovery and for the insurance claim.
Write down what you know. When it was noticed, which machines, what changed recently, who holds admin access.
Call your cyber insurance carrier. Most policies require notice before you engage anyone, and an unapproved vendor can void coverage.
Call us at 316-712-4006. We will tell you what to preserve before anything else is touched.
What Happened to the City of Wichita in May 2024
On Sunday, May 5, 2024, the City of Wichita disclosed a cyberattack after ransomware encrypted portions of its network. City staff deliberately shut systems down to stop the spread. The city said the decision “was not made lightly” but was necessary before systems returned to service.
A city of nearly 400,000 people then ran on paper. Police and fire reports were filled out by hand. Residents paid utility bills with cash or a check, and the city said water would not be shut off for anyone who could not pay.
LockBit added the city to its leak site with a payment deadline of May 15, 2024. The city did not pay. The data copied in the attack included names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license and state identification numbers, and payment card information tied to law enforcement incident and traffic records.
The attack came three months after an international law enforcement operation disrupted LockBit in February 2024. Disruption is not elimination. Affiliates kept operating, and Wichita found that out first hand.
- Online water bill payment
- Municipal court systems
- Bus ticketing
- Airport WiFi and departure screens
- Licensing and permitting
- Landfill and garbage billing
- Library systems
- City email and most incoming phone capability
- City Council meeting streaming
- Police and fire reporting, which reverted to paper
What Recovery Actually Looks Like
Recovery is not one step. It is five, and skipping any of them is how a business gets encrypted a second time by the same attacker through the same door.
Phase 1: Containment, hours 0 to 4
We isolate affected systems, cut the attacker’s access, and stop the spread. Nothing is wiped and nothing is restored yet. The priority is stopping the bleeding and preserving what the investigation will need.
Phase 2: Scoping and forensics, days 1 to 5
We determine how they got in, how long they were inside, what they touched, and whether data left the building. This answers the question your attorney and your insurer ask first: is this a reportable breach?
Phase 3: Eradication, days 2 to 7
We remove persistence, rotate every credential, close the entry point, and rebuild anything we cannot prove is clean. Restoring onto a network that is still compromised is the most common cause of a second attack.
Phase 4: Recovery, days 3 to 21
Systems come back in business priority order, tested before they go live. If your backups are intact, this is measured in days. If the backups were encrypted too, it takes longer and we will tell you that early rather than late.
Phase 5: Notification and hardening, weeks 2 to 8
We support whatever notification your counsel determines is required, then fix the conditions that allowed it: multi factor authentication everywhere, immutable backups, segmented networks, and monitoring that would have caught this one.
Why Wichita Businesses Get Hit
Ransomware crews do not choose targets by city. They scan the internet for exposed remote access, unpatched edge devices, and credentials without multi factor authentication, then sell that access to whoever pays for it. Wichita’s business mix means a lot of that access is worth buying.
Aerospace and precision manufacturing. Shop floor systems that cannot be patched during production, and ITAR obligations that make stolen data far more expensive than the downtime.
Healthcare and dental practices. HIPAA notification duties, plus scheduling and imaging systems that stop patient care the moment they lock.
Law firms. Client confidentiality obligations and a document store worth more to an extortionist than the encryption itself.
Construction and AEC. Project files, bid documents, and a subcontractor network that gives an attacker several ways in.
Logistics and transportation. Dispatch and tracking systems where a few hours of downtime cascades into missed contracts.
Financial services and accounting. GLBA obligations and client financial records that make the extortion pressure severe.
Should You Pay the Ransom?
This is your decision, made with your counsel and your insurer. What we can do is tell you what we see and what the trade offs actually are.
Payment does not guarantee recovery
Decryptors supplied by attackers are frequently slow, incomplete, or simply broken. Some files come back corrupted. You are trusting a criminal’s software quality control.
Payment does not undo data theft
Modern crews copy data before they encrypt it. Paying buys a promise to delete it, not proof of deletion. Your notification obligations do not disappear because you paid.
There are legal limits
Payments that reach sanctioned entities can violate US Treasury OFAC rules. Your counsel and your insurer need to clear any payment before it happens, not after.
Your insurer likely has a say
Most policies require carrier approval before a payment and before you engage a vendor. Acting first and telling them later can cost you the claim.
The City of Wichita did not pay
LockBit set a deadline of May 15, 2024 and the city let it pass. Recovery meant weeks of manual operation, but it was recovery on the city’s terms rather than an attacker’s.
Why a Wichita Team Instead of a National Hotline
Search for ransomware help and you will find national firms running a template page with a city name dropped into it. Some of them are competent. None of them can be at your office this afternoon.
We can be on site. Some things cannot be done over a remote session: imaging a machine, pulling a drive, physically segmenting a network that is actively spreading.
You talk to the people doing the work. Not a dispatcher routing you to whoever happens to be free in another time zone.
We know the local environment. The carriers, the regional cloud and backup providers, and the compliance obligations that come with Wichita's aerospace and healthcare employers.
We are part of Click Techs, which has served Wichita businesses since 2005. This is not a hotline that opened last year.
Your Notification Obligations in Kansas
Kansas breach notification is governed by K.S.A. 50-7a02. It applies to anyone conducting business in Kansas who owns or licenses computerized personal information. Most business owners are surprised by how it actually works.
This is general information, not legal advice. Your attorney decides whether and when you notify. Our job is to give that decision accurate technical findings to rest on.
- There is no fixed deadline in days. The standard is notice in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, and it is judged after the fact.
- The trigger is misuse, not merely access. Notice is required when an investigation determines the personal information has been or will be misused, which is exactly why the forensics phase matters.
- A law enforcement investigation can justify delaying notice, but the reason has to be documented.
- Notifying more than 1,000 consumers at one time also requires notice to the nationwide consumer reporting agencies.
- The Kansas Attorney General enforces the statute, except for insurance companies, which answer to the Insurance Commissioner.
Where We Respond
We respond on site across Wichita, Sedgwick County, and the surrounding communities. If you are outside this list, call anyway. We will tell you honestly whether we can reach you or whether you are better served by someone closer.
Wichita
Derby
Andover
Maize
Goddard
Haysville
Park City
Bel Aire
Valley Center
Mulvane
Rose Hill
Clearwater
Augusta
El Dorado
Newton
Hesston
Winfield
Arkansas City
Hutchinson
Wellington
If You Are In It Right Now, Call
There is no form to fill out and no callback queue. The line is answered around the clock by someone who can start helping immediately.
Call 316-712-4006.
Active incident: we will tell you what to preserve before anything else is touched.
Not sure whether it is ransomware: describe what you are seeing and we will help you find out.
Not under attack: ask us to look at your backups and remote access now, before you need us.
Questions Wichita Businesses Ask Us
We are based in Wichita, so travel time inside the city and Sedgwick County is measured in minutes rather than flights. Call 316-712-4006 and we will tell you honestly when we can be there. We do not publish a guaranteed response time we cannot prove.
No. Disconnect them from the network but leave them powered on. Shutting down destroys memory evidence that can identify the ransomware strain and sometimes holds encryption keys. Pull the network cable or switch off WiFi instead.
Sometimes. Free decryptors exist for some strains, and if your backups are intact and were not reachable by the attacker, recovery does not need decryption at all. The first step is identifying the strain, which is why preserving evidence matters so much.
Possibly. Kansas law, K.S.A. 50-7a02, requires notice when an investigation determines that personal information has been or will be misused. Whether that threshold is met depends on the forensic findings. Your attorney makes that call, and we supply the technical findings it rests on.
In May 2024, ransomware encrypted portions of the city’s network. City staff deliberately shut systems down, the city ran on paper for weeks, and it did not pay. LockBit published data that included names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and payment card information.
Often yes. Cloud service retention, shadow copies, offline media, vendor held snapshots, and older drives that happened to be disconnected can all survive. Do not overwrite anything, and do not let anyone reformat a machine until it has been checked.
That depends on your policy, but the sequence matters. Most carriers require notice before you engage a vendor and before any payment is made. Call your carrier early. Engaging the wrong responder first can jeopardize the claim.
In most cases we see it is one of four things: remote access exposed to the internet, a credential without multi factor authentication, an unpatched edge device such as a VPN appliance or firewall, or a compromise at a vendor who had access to your network. The forensics phase determines which one.