A major malware attack in Louisiana; schools infected with ransomware

Malware attacks are still on the rise. International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) website security specialists report that multiple IT systems in academic institutions in Louisiana, US, have been attacked with an unknown malware variant. So far no attacks have been identified against other sectors.

The incident is so serious that John Bel
Edwards, the state’s governor, issued an emergency alert after the security
breach was discovered last Wednesday, as a result, the authorities will be able
to allocate public resources to resolve the incident. This is the first time
the Louisiana government has launched a cybersecurity emergency alert.

“Our website security experts have
detected a malware attack on some school systems at the north of our territory;
we are implementing coordinated measures to address the incident,” the
governor said.

In recent months several cases have been
detected in which hackers manage to compromise computer systems in different
cities with some variants of malicious software, especially ransomware.
In the US alone, multiple attacks have occurred against small towns and
territories in states like New York, Florida,
and Atlanta.

In addition to the ability to use financial
resources, the emergency declaration allows Governor Edwards to turn to website
security specialists of the Louisiana National Guard, the State Police, the
Office of Technology Services, among other corporations at the federal level.

In 2017, Governor Edwards pushed for the
creation of a commission made up of technology service providers, academics and
law enforcement agencies; the objective of this committee was to develop
protocols to respond to these kinds of threats.

“This is the type of incidents we were thinking
about when creating the Cybersecurity Commission; an agency that focused on
preventing, detecting and responding to information security incidents was
needed, as local governments are often far overwhelmed by the capabilities of
malicious hacker groups,” added the Governor.

At the moment, the agencies and professionals
that work in this commission are developing the plan that will be implemented
to correct this serious incident.   

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