Louisiana was hit by Ryuk, triggering another cyber-emergency

Enlarge / Louisiana state agencies were taken offline during the response to a Ryuk ransomware attack but are now largely up and running again thanks to backups. (credit: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Getty Images via Getty Images)

In October, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a warning of increased targeting by ransomware operators of "big game"-targets with deep pockets and critical data that were more likely to pay ransoms to restore their systems. The past week has shown that warning was for good reason.

On November 18, a ransomware attack caused Louisiana's Office of Technology Services to shut down parts of its network, including the systems of several major state agencies. These included the governor's office, the Department of Health (including Medicare systems), the Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Department of Transportation. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards activated the state's cybersecurity response team.

Today, we activated the state's cybersecurity team in response to an attempted ransomware attack that is affecting some state servers. The Office of Technology Services identified a cybersecurity threat that affected some, but not all state servers. #lagov #lalege

- John Bel Edwards (@LouisianaGov) November 18, 2019

While some services have been brought back online-in some cases, within hours-others are still in the process of being restored. Most of the interrupted services were caused by "our aggressive actions to combat the attack," according to Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne. "We are confident we did not have any lost data, and we appreciate the public's patience as we continue to bring services online over the next few days."

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