(CNN) New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell declared a state of emergency Friday after the city was hit by a cyberattack.
Phishing attempts and suspicious activity were detected on the city's network around 5 a.m., New Orleans chief information officer Kim LaGrue said during a press conference. By 11 a.m., technician investigators detected "a cybersecurity incident" and the city's information technology department began powering down servers and city computers as a precaution, the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said in a series of tweets
While ransomware was detected, no ransom has been demanded in the cyberattack, Cantrell said.
At this time, the city does not believe any employee information was compromised during the phishing attempts that occurred.
The incident is being investigated by the city with assistance from the Louisiana State Police, Louisiana National Guard, the FBI and Secret Service, according to the tweets.
saver1212 on December 14th, 2019 at 19:42 UTC »
If Maze is behind this attack as well, then it’s very likely that this group has city-wide compromising abilities for sale. The fact that a private group has the ability to cripple any major city at will is a problem but it’s much more worrisome if the bar for security is so low that non-nation states are getting into the game of hacking government entities.
TheFeshy on December 14th, 2019 at 18:08 UTC »
Cities in my state are paying out millions of dollars a year to ransomware attacks. That's money that could have fed the poor, fixed roads, or at the very least, paid for better IT security to prevent it happening again.
SlantedBlue on December 14th, 2019 at 16:41 UTC »
Nobody shuts down all their systems as a precaution because they detected phishing attempts. They are totally pwned and just unwilling to admit or unaware of the extent of it.