Louisiana hit by ransomware attack

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) on Monday activated the state’s cybersecurity team in response to an attack on multiple state agencies.

Edwards tweeted that upon discovering the attempted ransomware attack, Louisiana’s Office of Technology Services (OTS) took state agency servers offline, which impacted emails, websites, and other online applications.

“The service interruption was due to OTS’ aggressive response to prevent additional infection of state servers and not due to the attempted ransomware attack,” Edwards wrote. “Online services started to come back online this afternoon, though full restoration may take several days.”

The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services was among the agencies impacted by the attack, tweeting that their Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline was down for several hours.

Edwards noted that the Louisiana State Police and “several federal agencies” were investigating the attempted attack.

This is the second major ransomware attack Louisiana has been through this year, following one in July that impacted three school districts. Edwards declared a state-wide emergency in response to these attacks, which allowed for state resources and cybersecurity assistance to be given to the districts.