Louisiana, US, enters a state of emergency due to ransomware and cyber attacks against schools

After cyberattacks in multiple school districts, Gov. John Bel Edwards, the governor of Louisiana, announced that the state was in a state of emergency to deal with such attacks. According to the official news of Louisiana State, only four school districts’ academic systems were attacked by ransomware last week, and the system crashed directly after the files were encrypted. The computer systems and office computer systems in Sabin County, located in the western part of the state, were interrupted by cyber-attacks and were unable to perform any telephone service. In Sabine, Morehouse, and Ouachita parishes in North Louisiana, Louisiana, the school system was unable to provide services after being attacked by ransomware, and the number of schools currently affected is still increasing.

“The Sabine Parish School System was hit with an electronic virus early Sunday morning,” reads a statement on the school district’s website. “This virus has disabled some of our technology systems and our central office phone system. The district staff reported this electronic viral attack to local law enforcement, state officials and the FBI. All available resources are being utilized to get the district systems back online. An investigation involving local, state and federal law enforcement is ongoing at this time.”

In view of the high impact and possibly potential cyber-attacks, Louisiana has declared a state of emergency to invoke resources from all parties to defend against subsequent attacks. The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness also convened a crisis action team and emergency services capabilities to engage cybersecurity experts to participate and maintain. A number of cybersecurity experts have gone to the affected schools to help schools build firewalls and restore affected computer systems as much as possible.

Via: CNBC