Louisiana Governor John Del Edwards was forced to declare a state of emergency last Friday after suffering a cyberattack that left 10% of the state's computer network servers damaged.
Louisiana's Deputy Chief Information Officer, Neal Underwood, claims that the ransomware attack left one in ten of Louisiana's 5,000 computer network servers that power operations across the state damaged in last week's attack.
He's been quick to point out that no data was lost or ransom note was paid, but agencies like the Office of Motor Vehicles have been hit particularly hard. The agency was forced to close all branch locations last week to repair its computer network.
Technology staffers have been working tirelessly to get online systems and services back up and running. Underwood expects all state agencies to resume back to normal operations today, November 25, 2019. But that could be easier said than done since in some cases computer systems have to be completely rebuilt from the state's backup and recovery systems.
In addition to 10% of its network servers being disrupted, Underwood said that more than 1,500 of the state's 30,000 computers were damaged as a result of this attack.
An investigation into who's behind this attack is currently ongoing. But Underwood believes that the ransomware likely came from outside of the United States.
Underwood claims that the attacks had access to Louisiana's government computer servers for a "matter of hours" before they were discovered. Technology staff immediately shut down external access to network servers once the breach was spotted. This caused a much wider disruption to state government websites and email services than the actual ransomware attack.
Government agencies continue to face ever-increasing pressure to maintain the highest levels of security against the constant barrage of cyberattacks. NNT provides a suite of products to several government agencies, ensuring that systems and technologies can demonstrate compliance and achieve regulatory requirements for CIS, NIST, SCAP, and more. Our SecureOps™ suite also continuously monitors in real-time for any changes to the integrity of your systems with the ability to integrate with security and ITSM solutions to reduce security risk and increase service availability.
Learn more by visiting our Solutions for the Government webpage
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