Cyberattack Shuts Down City of New Orleans
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell declared a state of emergency in the Louisiana city on Friday after a cyberattack forced the city to shut down all computers on site as a precaution against further damage. The city is reporting that they do not believe their employees’ information has been compromised though.
A declaration of a state of emergency has been filed with the Civil District Court in connection with today’s cyber security event. pic.twitter.com/UtpGtu2aNm
— Mayor LaToya Cantrell (@mayorcantrell) December 13, 2019
The phishing and ransomware attack was first noticed around 5am Friday and, as employees came into work and began signing into their computers in the 8am hour, the attack increased. By 11am, computer investigators had declared a fill-scales cyberattack on the city.
Out of an abundance of caution, all employees were immediately alerted to power down computers, unplug devices & disconnect from WiFi. All servers have been powered down as well. https://t.co/KhFefLSQsK websites will be down.
— NOLA Ready (@nolaready) December 13, 2019
Currently. It is not known who is behind the attacks but the incident is being investigated by the city of New Orleans as well as the Louisiana State Police, Louisiana National Guard, the FBI and the Secret Service. This is not the first time this has happened in the state. In July, there was a similar attack that happened at several Louisiana school systems. Those malware attacks also prompted a state of emergency to be called by Gov. John Bel Edwards.