IT Team Heroes Stop Ransomware Attack on Town Computer Network
In a message sent out and posted to the town website on Monday morning, August 8, Town Manager Justin Sultzbach informed Winchendon citizens that the town had successfully fended off an apparent "ransomware" attack last week. Mr. Sultzbach reassured residents that "we experienced no data loss, and at this time have no reason to believe that any personal data was compromised. Additionally, there were not any significant financial implications tied to this attack beyond staff hours to restore our systems. We would like to thank our IT team for all of their efforts to restore our network."
Don O'Neill, the town's IT manager, told the Courier that the attack came from an IP number located in Russia. "There's no more expertise than Russia" in computer and internet attacks, he said, keeping ahead of them is challenging. On Thursday morning, August 4, he explained, town staff came in to find that their email was down and email service was disabled. The town has its own servers, and the email server was "completely compromised."
All servers were immediately shut down along with every individual town computer connected to them. The email server was recovered via a backup which had been scanned and checked--"good backups are the key," Mr. O'Neill said. Robert O'Keefe, who is also the IT manager for Gardner, assisted in the emergency crisis response.
Because the top priority was to remediate the system from being "taken over" further by ransomware, the IT specialists didn't pause for forensic investigation. "We'll never really know" how the system got compromised, Mr. O'Neill said. It could have been a bad link in an email or a bad website someone visited. Hackers have become so crafty, it can be extremely easy to click a bad link by mistake--and it only takes one click.
All log-ins have now been changed to 14-character randomized passwords which are very difficult to crack, according to Mr. O'Neill. Passwords had been changed every 90 days but with the longer passwords, they won't need to be changed as often (you can change a password every day and it won't help if it's easy to crack). The town does not use two-factor authentication, but Mr. O'Neill feels the longer passwords will be very secure. The servers have updated anti-virus software.
The incident makes Tony Roselli, the auditor who recently reported to the Board of Selectmen on the town's finances, weirdly prescient: he advised taking precautions against ransomware attacks, which have struck numerous municipalities, school systems and other public networks. A ransomware attack locks down an entire computer network and all its data and files, and the hackers demand a large sum of money to release the system. "You don't want to be that town" that makes news for being held for ransom, he warned. Thanks to Mr. O'Neill and Mr. O'Keefe, Winchendon isn't one of "those towns." Thank you from the Courier!
Through COVID, Weather Extremes and Falling Masonry,
Old Murdock Senior Center Never Falters
One of the most vital Winchendon institutions in a community whose average age is steadily increasing, the Winchendon Senior Center, located in the former Old Murdock High School, continued to provide services even while its building was closed to the public during the COVID mandated shutdown. Fully open now and available to all residents aged 55 and older, the Senior Center provides meals, recreation, socializing, exercise options and important education and counseling services to hundreds of Toy Towners. The Courier recently sat down with Senior Center Director Sheila Bettro in the Old Murdock dining hall to talk about how things are going, now that COVID closures and restrictions are past.
About a dozen seniors were chatting in the dining hall waiting for lunch to be served. The building has no air conditioning, but large fans, high ceilings and thick masonry meant the space was quite comfortable even after days of heat and stifling humidity.
"Since COVID, our lunchtime for in-house has dropped," Ms. Bettro said. "We were doing anywhere from forty to sixty people on a daily basis. Now we're doing twenty-five to thirty." When the building first re-opened for in-person lunches, only about ten brave diners ventured in, but the numbers have slowly increased. "We still have what's called Grab and Go lunches. There's still elders who want to get the lunch, but they just have the fear of coming in. So our Grab and Go, they meet us at the steps, we have their lunch packed and then they're all set," Ms. Bettro said.
The lunches are prepared and delivered by the Montachusett Opportunity Council, Inc. (MOC), packed in sealed containers. The Senior Center occasionally uses its full commercial kitchen for breakfasts and special events, but COVID regulations set by the Massachusetts Department of Elder Affairs require that home-delivered and in-house lunches be outsourced until further notice.
The same lunches are delivered to local seniors via the Meals on Wheels program, which serves 65 to 118 seniors each day. "So at the end of the week, we have serviced over 500 elders in town with Meals on Wheels, and then about another 125 in house. So we're averaging 550 to close to 600 a week," Ms. Bettro said.
The Senior Center has two van drivers and a part-time van driver. Transportation service has increased and is running five days a week. In July, the Center did 58 medical runs, 36 shopping trips (including grocery shopping) and two additional errands trips, which vary. The food pantry usage has also increased since COVID, with about 30 elders per month utilizing the Senior Center food pantry (donations always appreciated!).
But there's a lot more going on at the Senior Center than lunch. "This group," Ms. Bettro said, nodding toward the two full tables of lively conversation, "they're social butterflies, they want to come in and socialize. We bring in music...they love their music." There are several guest performers scheduled in August and September. "And bingo. We have well over forty, sometimes fifty people in here on a Wednesday for bingo. We still do our continental breakfast Monday through Friday, that starts about 8:30 and we shut it down around 10:30. It's not as popular as it was but people still come in and utilize it. We do pickleball Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and that is getting used. We still have the full exercise room which also is being used. We have three pool tables...they are still getting some usage."
Interest in educational programs is not as strong, but there is a one-on-one computer class available, while classes in crocheting, knitting, and chocolate making will be offered. The yoga class is very popular.
The Winchendon Council on Aging is an "advisory board" to the Senior Center Director, Ms. Bettro explained. Some of the funding for the Center comes from a formula grant from the state, which runs for five years at a time. The Senior Center's Fiscal Year 2023 (July 1 2022 through June 30 2023) appropriation from the town, as approved at the 2022 Annual Town Meeting, is $221,236, about 85 percent of which goes to staff salaries. Ms. Bettro started as Senior Center Director in 2003 and is coming up on her 20th anniversary in the position.
All the staff except the Director are part-time positions, and all positions are filled at this time. Ms. Bettro said that the Center was short staffed last summer, but "we got through it. We're thankful to the other staff members who stepped up and stayed later and came in earlier...I'm grateful for my staff because they are an excellent, excellent group of people to work with. They really are, and fun."
The Center could still use some more volunteers, Ms. Bettro said. From a former pool of 48, she now has about ten volunteers. "I would love to have a volunteer to come in and do our food pantry and clothes closet a couple hours a week. That would free me up because I'm usually the one who's packing and stacking, but that would probably be one of my goals, to get somebody to come in and volunteer for the food pantry." (Anyone who would like to run the food pantry, contact Ms. Bettro at the Senior Center any time.)
Her biggest challenge, Ms. Bettro said, is getting more seniors into the building on a daily basis. "We've tried many, many different things, but I'm finding that a lot of the elders are now working until they're 75 or 80. And they don't have the time to come in to the Senior Center. That's what we're finding...we're doing outreach, and that's what we're hearing. They're just working longer."
Asked what the number one item on her "wish list" would be, Ms. Bettro stopped and thought for a long time. "You know, I have to say that this is a very contented Senior Center. We work with what we have and we try to work within our means, we stay within our budget. I don't know that I do have a wish list," she finally said. "We have a beautiful kitchen. We have a beautiful Senior Center." Fixing the masonry on the clock tower is a goal, and maybe the air conditioning in the Meals on Wheels van. But, she said, "I don't think any of the staff really have a wish list. We have what we need here and we make it work."
The Senior Center is critical to the lives of some of the seniors who come there, Ms. Bettro said. "I'm looking at three or four people who have nobody, nobody. They have no family. They have no car. If it wasn't for the Senior Center, they would just be sitting at home all day long. They have no way to get into shopping. They have no way to get down to CVS to pick up their meds." Even with three vans, sometimes the Center has to postpone a non-medical transportation request. "I don't think the community realizes the impact that it might have on some of these elders with no transportation and no family member" if the Senior Center wasn't there, she said. "You know how grateful these people are for the Senior Center? Because we lose track. We're so much into ourselves that we don't look at the big picture."
Ms. Bettro didn't have to pause when asked what she'd like the community to know about the Senior Center. "This is like [the seniors'] second home. And if you can hear, they all sit and chat, they all get along...It's been so depressing, with COVID and everything else that's going on that they come in here, they laugh...And I just would like the community to know that you don't have to be 55 to come here. It's open...We're more than happy to greet you and treat you just like we treat any of our elders.
"It's a friendly atmosphere and it's such a caring place. I have such a great staff. My staff is there, they're wonderful. They're all compassionate, they all care about each other. They care about the elders. Even without the air conditioner, none of them complain. They come in, they do their job. I've said to the elders, guys, it's gonna be like 90 degrees in here. Do you want us to deliver your meal? 'No, we want to come in.'" Ms. Bettro urged town residents to check the Senior Center out--"It's more than just a bingo hall. It really is."
By now, the seniors were enjoying their lunch of chili cheeseburger on a wheat bun, sweet potato tots and veggies, but they were happy to give the Courier some comments.
Arthur Mowry wanted people to know that when the Senior Center opened in Old Murdock in 2006, he went through the entire building from the basement crawl space to the attic, and it's sound, he said. He misses the pre-COVID days when the Center was full of people. At one time, he said, they used to bring in old bicycles and repair them to give away to kids.
Claire Chase says she comes to the Senior Center "for the socialization, and the love." She added, laughing, "The meals are pretty good."
John Corby put in, "The food and the company is very good."
Many Toy Towners have been aware of the Old Murdock Senior Center mostly because of the crumbling masonry on the clock tower, which has been wrapped in industrial-strength plastic for months. The front of the building is barricaded off to protect passers-by from falling bricks. Last month, engineers from Russo Barr Associates Inc. toured the building with Town Manager Justin Sultzbach and will be creating the designs which will provide the basis for grant applications for repairs. The building is under a Historical Preservation Restriction due to Massachusetts Historical Commission funding for repairs twenty years ago.
In an article she wrote for the Courier before the 2020 Annual Town Meeting (delayed by the COVID shutdown to September 28 that year), Ms. Bettro recounted that the Murdock High School was dedicated on June 21, 1887, at which time "it was the finest and best equipped building in Massachusetts." Named for Ephraim Murdock Jr. who bestowed a trust fund to establish the school, Murdock School's last graduating class left the building in June, 1961. (for more, see "Old Murdock Senior Center" in the September 24-October 1 2020 edition of The Winchendon Courier)
The building was closed in 1995 and fell into such disrepair that by 1998/1999, "Old Murdock had become one of the Ten Most Endangered Buildings in Massachusetts." Ms. Bettro wrote, "The Community Development Commission sought funds for repairs to the building through Community Development Block Grants, the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation and the Town of Winchendon. From this funding, the roof was re-slated and the clock tower restored to its glory by James Abare. The building housed the Top Fun Aviation Museum on the first floor. In October, 2005, The Town of Winchendon assigned use and control of Old Murdock to the Council on Aging for use as a senior center. An architectural study done that same year concluded that the building was in good structural condition. The Winchendon Council on Aging moved into the building in December 2005."
Ms. Bettro told the Courier that the Council on Aging was using the Old Murdock building fully as the Senior Center by 2008. Prior to that, senior services and meals were hosted by the Winchendon Housing Authority at Ipswich and Hyde Park, "which meant we had to bounce the staff back and forth with all of our equipment." Sometimes the community hall was in use and the seniors were bumped out. WHA Executive Director David Connor and the WHA "were wonderful to us," Ms. Bettro said, "but we were very grateful to get this building. We utilize the whole building right now," except for the third floor for the time being, because of the masonry issues. But from the unheated basement which provides storage space, to the auditorium, community room, dining hall, exercise room, sitting room and more, "it's all being used."
The Old Murdock auditorium also serves as the town's polling place during elections, and has been the location for several COVID vaccination clinics. HEAL Winchendon is discussing some possible shared use of spaces in the building.
The Old Murdock Senior Center is located at 52 Murdock Avenue, facing the G.A.R. Park. It can be reached at 978-297-3155. Its hours are Monday through Thursday 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Friday 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. For more information about programs, services and scheduled events, visit the Center or see:
www.townofwinchendon.com/council-aging
sites.google.com/site/winchendoncouncilonaging/
www.facebook.com/oldmurdock
PJ's Slush Stop Opens as Toy Town's Newest Business
Winchendon has three beloved ice cream stands that do a land office business every summer. But what if you're feeling like something cold, sweet and refreshing, but a little different? Something non-dairy? Something like a classic, sidewalks-of-New-York (or Boston's North End), premium Italian Ice?
Say hello to Amy Marcus and her brand new PJ's Slush Stop, which just had its "soft opening," in defiance of construction work, on Sunday, July 24 at 308 Central Street right across from CVS. Selling Richie's Slushies in two sizes, PJ's offers a wide variety of unique flavors, such as (to give a handful of examples) Blue Vanilla, Coconut Cream, Cotton Candy, Swedish Fish, Strawberry Lemonade and Rootbeer.
The shop is tiny, but pristine, with a new floor and interior, put in by the previous tenant, Amy told the Courier. The space has been occupied by several different small businesses/sole proprietorships over the last few years; the last one, a massage therapist, did not use the space during COVID and eventually vacated the unit. It's so small, the chest freezer holding the product doubles as the front counter.
Amy explained that she and her family are new to Winchendon, having moved here about a year ago. A slushie shop seemed like something the town would enjoy. She'd had "a couple of traveling businesses" selling slushies, Amy said, but this is her first fixed location. The timing "just felt like serendipity." Business has been good, and Amy has felt welcomed. She plans to keep the shop open year-round.
Amy buys her product in one gallon tubs, and varies the flavors she sells. Each week's specials can be seen on the shop's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pjsslushstop.
Along with the slushies, the store has art, books, and crafts on sale. Customers can try to guess the number of straws in a jar to win a $10 gift certificate.
The business is still expanding and responding to customer feedback and interest. Currently, it's open from 2:00 to 8:00 on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 3:00 to 8:00 on Thursday (closed Monday and Tuesday). Come on down and try an authentic Italian Ice slushie at Winchendon's newest business!
Amy Marcus is ready to welcome you for a delicious cooling slushie!
Photo by Inanna Arthen
Amy Marcus scoops up a slushie for a customer.
Photo by Inanna Arthen
