Ransom Attack Strikes New Orleans

New Orleans is the latest city to fall victim to a cyberattack, although it appears to have fared better than other American cities. The city declared a state of emergency and a shut-down of most of its computers after detecting suspicious activity, including ransomware and a flurry of phishing emails. 

It's not clear if the ransomware compromised any systems, although Mayor LaToya Cantrell said that there had been no ransom requests or evidence of employees being tricked into handing over login details.

Officials are running many services on pen and paper until it's deemed safe for computers to come back online, although the Orleans Parish Communication District (which handles both 311 and 991 lines) and courts weren't affected. The state of emergency was declared on Friday 13th December following what the city has described as a “cybersecurity incident.”New Orleans officials said after their systems were targeted by phishing and ransomware attacks on Friday.

New Orleans government employees responded swiftly to the attacks. They started to notice suspicious activity around 5am, received more reports about potential issues at about 8am and shut down their systems at 11am.

City employees were ‘immediately alerted to power down computers, unplug devices, and disconnect from WiFi. The declaration, made by Mayor LaToya Cantrell, warned that the emergency was potentially ongoing and that the incident “could result in the endangerment of property” in the city. City officials later confirmed that the attack involved ransomware but that no information has been compromised. NOLA Ready, New Orleans’ emergency preparedness campaign, further noted that many of the city’s computers were shut down “out of an abundance of caution.”

The city also activated its emergency operations center and enlisted the help of “cybersecurity resources” from the Louisiana State Police, the FBI, the state’s National Guard, and the US Secret Service. Louisiana Governor. John Bel Edwards had only just declared a state of emergency late last month after numerous state agencies were similarly targeted by hackers.

The attacks are part of a growing trend across the country in which attackers attempt to cripple major government entities with malware in order to receive a large payoff. Earlier this year other major cities including Baltimore and Greenville, North Carolina, were hit with ransomware as well. In both instances, officials refused to pay a ransom to the hackers in order to have their computers’ data restored.

Officials later confirmed that all of the systems connected to their network were shut down. This led to the closure of some offices, and the city's official website was taken offline, but it was also supposed to isolate any potentially compromised devices.

TomsHardware:      DailyDot:          Endgadget: 

You Might Also Read:

Hackers Demand Ransom After Stealing Johannesburg's Data: