last year? a new bounce in your step? the way your retinal scan connects to your blood sugar? at kaiser permanente all of us work together to care for all that is you. >> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. let you know that we're getting answers and working on getting three great guests free today, we have a lot to talk about including the latest ransomware attack, this one happening in hayward today. we will talk about cybersecurity needs, but -- with an expert in the field and talk to a chronicle reporter about an 18

month long reporting project that they just completed today about one of the towns in honduras which has a link to the drug trade in san francisco. we are going to begin with the first story, which is the situation with the cyberattack. that may just tell you what happened today. the city of hayward's website remains down at this hour after what is believed to be an attack discovered yesterday morning. is this related to other recent cyber attacks, you remember oakland and of course just last month california public employees retirement systems along with ucla. joining us to talk about the hack, the effect and the solutions is cybersecurity expert and ceo of cyber catch based in san diego. thank you for being here. >> like you for having me. >> what we know about this attack on this website and system? who is behind it? >> unfortunately, it is the

beginning of these attacks against cities and municipalities and towns, and they are perpetrated by criminal gangs who are after financial gain so it is a way for them to enter the system, lock everything down, steal data at the same time, and then demand ransom. >> before we get into how they got in, i think the latest we heard was that emergency services and communications are backup, but the website is still down. what is the damage done as far as we can tell? >> it is hard to say right now, the city has been very cautious, it's possible that they may have had some vulnerabilities on the website, which hackers exploited. they did not want any further access, and maybe they are trying to prevent any data from being taken out. it is very early to find out how it happened and

symptomatic and similar to other attacks that have happened in other towns. dion: like the one suffered by the retirement system or ucla? >> oakland for example, had ransomware -- ransomware attack and a data theft, it is a similar pattern, where the attackers want to infect ransomware and get some money and steal things. dion: can we tell what kind of data they are able to get in these situations? i know that you said it is too early to tell about hayward, we certainly saw the impact of oakland and even now they are still dealing with it, they have not necessarily warned everyone affected. what is possibly out there and where is it? >> absolutely. data is very former employees, contractors,

consumers, residents, which need services, and that service being provided by whom, and cities have a lot of data. sometimes the data is over several years. so the attackers want to get in and steal the data and then sell it on the dark web. unfortunately, the dark web is a horrible place where these attackers can trade the data and sell it, and use it for additional attacks. just think of, for example, someone's password that they may have access to now. unfortunately, this person is reusing the password on other sites, and they can just use that to commit the bad data again. the data is very valuable unfortunately. >> we don't know for certain about hayward but it certainly could be related to previous attacks like this, whether it is oakland. -- or not. there is one that has gotten a lot of attention recently, there

was a vulnerability that allowed hackers to get into the data of hundreds of companies and agencies. >> unfortunately that is another technique that they are using. i think they go directly to a target like the city, or they might go to a provider of the city, a technology company or a similar supplier. >> can you expand that? -- explain that? >> is basically a software provider. -- it is basically a software provider. the software is used by thousands of businesses worldwide for file transfers. they had a vulnerability that the tech -- attackers exploited which allowed them to be able to get to data for their customers. so it's a way of using a supplier as an initial entry point into the target and that is a technique they are using today. dion: how do we guard against that? because i think at least

100 agencies and companies have been impacted and affected, is there any national security out there? how do we guard against that? >> what organizations need to do is due diligence. they have to identify their attack surface, if you will. they have to look at their websites, applications, suppliers that provide them i.t. access. you have to visually see and think like the attacker. what will the attacker be able to find? then you have to benchmark it and see what kind of countermeasures to we have in place? are we in compliance with the federal standard? what most people should do and most people are not doing and is relatively simple to do is to assume that you're going to get attacked, assume it from the third -- a third party

or the web or fishing, they're going to put ransomware in and demand payment, assume that. now ask will we be able to detect it and when, and how will we respond? and what do we do -- need to do to get back up? if you can do a cyber drill, that identifies gaps, we spots, and take corrective action as opposed to waiting until the bad deed happens and reacting. dion: and when you are in that horrible situation, do you pay or not, you often feel like you have to otherwise the results are unthinkable but then you just encourage more, neither is a good solution. i have been thinking a little bit about how ai might affect the situation, either in terms of hacking or fighting hacking. what do you think? >> that is a great point.

unfortunately, ai is a two-sided coin, there are tremendous opportunity for productivity gains but the other side is that the attackers can -- [no audio] dion: i think we audio there, but we want to thank the ceo of cyber catch, -- catch for joining us today. as week face another ransomware situation with the city of hayward which happened just today and their website is still down as a result. we do have another interesting segment for you coming up on getting answers, our team of reporters at the chronicle spent more than a year uncovering what they called a hometown -- the hometown of san francisco drug dealers. the lead reporter joins us next to talk about a city in honduras

dion: it is no secret that drugs are a problem with san francisco, but the high concentration -- highest concentration is in the tenderloin. but there is growing evidence that honduran migrants play a key role in the drug dealing there. late last year, the mayor faced critisafter mentioning that connection on kqed. today, the san francisco medical back thastatement, publishing an article entitledhis is the hometown of san francio's drug dealers. its an expose on the city in honduras to which the report traces ties of our local drug crisis. joining us live our our reporters making cassidy and gabrielle.

delayed reporters on the article. thank you -- our lead reporters in the article. thank you for getting us answers. i know that this was a long-term project for the two of you, 18 months of research, right. what prompted it? >> it was actually our editor, amelia garcia -- emilio garcia. he started chief in the thick of covid and he came to both of us with kind of some questions which was why is it that everybody is telling me that there are so many honduran migrants that are street dealers and has anyone told that story? is there any link to the trafficking that we have heard of as well? and we separately were both interested in checking that out. dion: how did that begin? take us through the starting

streets of san francisco and ending up going 200? >> so >> i knew a lot of people in the streets and i knew some drug dealers, and i have lived here for a long time. and i began to chip away at the people i knew that would trust me and eventually one of them let us go with him. to honduras, to his hometown. that is where we discovered this is much bigger than this one individual. it's a lot of people coming from this one place and we sa with the logos tha all around us. >> and you have incredible photos of all that. tell us about that place, i don't want to mispronounce it, tell us about what you saw there and the many connections, the visible signs that link to the bay area? >> it really started kind of

slow, we were on our way to see the source, and we just started seeing these little references like one on a motor taxi, a giant bumper sticker. i thought that was kind of interesting. and then a pickup truck drove by and it had the oakland raiders on it. dion: and a gate with the 49ers look appeared -- logo. >> and once we got into this particular town, they were just inescapable. which kept -- we kept seeing more and more and it became this i spy game of wow, there's another n, on the one. -- another one, another one. we were both speechless. dion: you pointed out in your article that some of these are really nice homes, almost like

mansions, in an area struck by poverty. the mayor publicly commented about honduran migrants play a role in the drug trade, here is what she had to say in comments to kqed. >> there are unfortunately a lot of people who come from a particular country, coming from honduras, and a lot of people who are dealing drugs happened to be of that ethnicity. >> there was a lot of criticism of that statement at the time. but based on your report, and what you found, what do you make of that? has there been any contact between you and the mayor? >> we did interview the mayor for this story and i think that talking to some of the mayor's critics as well for herpes, ith -- the piece, that even if it is true it lacks a lot of context.

and that is what this big monster piece aims to do, to add a lot of context to an incredibly complex situation. dion: and it involves that your article someone called himself a nobody. he said that we are nobodies. can you talk about the role that they tend to play in the drug trade and where they fit in? hondurans traveling to the state and the bay area are working legally, but we found that in this town one person came and had brought -- solely -- started to bring other people, and his influence kept growing. and that is sort of what they are known for. things, when you talk about the drug war and how to stop it, are these the people at the lowest

levels of the latter? -- letter -- it's they are. that is what we heard time and time again. and we saw even with the big drug bust that we have seen -- busts that we have seen, there are no kingpins. and that is what makes this such a difficult problem, the police and the city art dealers like a game of whack a mole. and there is not just one key arrest that you can make that topples the whole organization. dion: and i would think that if they are at the low levels, even if they were arrested and prosecuted, is there a sense that they would be replaced and not -- how much is that getting to the heart of the problem? >> sure, and that is true, not just of san francisco, but really every city in the u.s..

the drug market is difficult, near impossible problem to solve with the -- at least with the tools that we have been using over the last several decades. >> did any of the men you talk with, i assume men, but maybe some women as well, did they say that they work or where stay in anyway to get into drug sales? -- they were coerced in any way to get into drug sales? >> we interviewed a total of 25 people who acknowledged or rather have been convicted for drug sales and three of them said that they were forced and coerced in somewhere, and we told their stories as honestly as we could. -- told their stories as honestly as we could. but something about that particular topic is

of them were anonymous and we had to really limit a lot of the details that we shared. but we did present their stories here. a lot of what we heard was actually horror stories from the border from being abducted and held for ransom. we heard that happening at the border and a lot of issues that rather than actually in san francisco. dion: we have to go, but i want to give you 30 seconds to talk about what do we do with this information and now that you have taken us to the source, the place that has been rumored about here in the bay area as we fight the opioid crisis and drug crisis, what to do? >> just take it in. gabrielle and a lot of other media outlets have covered the demand-side and the drug equation for a long time and mean time a lot of the

policy decisions are being made about the supply and without knowing, i think, a lot about the people who are involved in this supply and. i really just look -- hope that it informs future decisions. dion: making -- magan cas thank you so much for coming on. it is fastening and in the chronicled -- fascinating and in the chronicle today. dion: eight fentany session tonight, next, the high school teacher who organized it talkaboutips for parents on how to try to keep their children safe.

dion: a school event highlights the urgency of the fight against the teen use of fentanyl. the mount diablo unified school district is holding a fentanyl awareness event where something

that would have previously considered -- been considered drastic wood is -- is being done. here is the has good teacher who helped organize this event. thank you for joining us. it's for parents, right, what is the purpose? >> the purpose is to educate the community about the dangers of fentanyl and other opioid opioids that are out in the community that kids are being affected by in astounding numbers. i lost a 21-year-old son to fentanyl poisoning one year ago, june 12. he is one of four kids from his high school that died of fentanyl poisoning. we are joining with a coa to educate parents and families, one of the biggest takeaways is

that this can happen to anybody, fentanyl is nondiscriminatory and the parents need to know it can happen to one of their kids. so we have a big over 200, and we are happy with the turnout and we want to hold these presentations throughout the remainder of the year hoping to reach every parent and family on the school district. -- in the school district. dion: i am so sorry, i thought that you were coming at it as an educator, not aware that you are a parent who lost a child. so. my deepest condolences. i want to talk about the part that caught our attention, that you will be giving out the reversal of overdose medication mark canha and teaching people how to administer that. and i guess a while ago, that would have been controversial or people might think why, but what do you think this is a

reflection of? >> i am with a lot of other parents who have lost fentanyl, and -- lost kids to fentanyl, and my son was alive when i found him, and i did not know about narcan or fentanyl, and would have saved him. it is important that our goal that every family will have this lifesaving dose fentanyl is more deadly than covid. we were able to get free covid tests. we feel that this is equally, if not more important than the free covid tests that the united states provided families. >> a lot of people are starting to feel that way. in san francisco there is a proposal that would require every pharmacy to carry a does every school have one

on-site in your district? >> they have been, and it saved a girl on campus one time. the goal is more widespread. i did a presentation to my faculty, and i said every teacher needs one because when you come across somebody that has simply taken taken some thing with fentanyl in it, you have minutes. if a kid is on the soccer field and the lifesavers on the other site, it's just too far. -- narcan is on the other site, it is too far. dion: if support effort to develop its own supply of the medication, so the state is taking it seriously. i know that you are at capacity

because many parents want to know about this. there is a lot of interest. what will you do next? >> we will keep having them on the counter. the next one is august 24. and the registration link will be coming out to parents after this event tonight. parents and families can always look at the contra costa county office of education, doing similar meetings and trainings, everybody will be used to train -- trained to use narcan we are not just handing it out to everybody. we are training everybody so everyone he knows what to do. dion: we have to go, but real quick, did you ever think that this could happen to your child? >> not a chance. not a chance. he was the all-american boy next door. dion: i am so sorry. thank you for holding this event tonight. >> a

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dion: they consumer for joining us on getting answers today. we will be tonight, in new york and the northeast, the deadly and catastrophic flooding. the new images coming in. the devastating flooding in vermont. heavy rain washing away roads. homes and businesses tonight under water. just outside new york city, raging floods in the last 24 hours, causing massive damage. at least one person swept away while trying to escape her flooded home. state troopers using ropes to pull stranded drivers to safety. and more severe storms tonight in the northeast. ginger zee standing by to time all of this out. also, the dangerous