St. Vincent de Paul Parish 'does not believe' ransomware attack leaked personal or financial information

A ransomware attack against St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Perryville, Missouri, has caused minimal damage, according to a representative of the parish's diocese.

Maria Lemakis, multimedia manager of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, said the parish discovered the attack on its internal network server Aug. 2.

"At this time, the parish does not believe that any sensitive personal or financial information was compromised; any data impacted is expected to be minimal," Lemakis said Tuesday.

The ransomware attack was immediately reported to law enforcement officials and is under investigation, according to Lemakis.

A representative of the Perryville Police Department said an investigation into the ransomware attack was turned over to the FBI. An FBI spokeswoman, Rebecca Wu, said the FBI cannot confirm or deny ransomware investigations.

According to the FBI's website, ransomware is a type of malicious software or malware preventing computer users from accessing files, systems or networks. A ransom is typically demanded in return for restored access.

It is unclear at how much St. Vincent de Paul Parish's ransom was set.

As of presstime, the Southeast Missourian has received no response from Perryville Police Department's public information officer and St. Vincent de Paul Parish's information technology manager after calls for comment were made Monday and Tuesday.

The parish is working to restore its network from its off-site data backups as quickly as possible and is working to prevent future attacks, Lemakis said.