Webpages across the state went offline Monday after a ransomware attack was detected. Louisiana government servers were shut down.
Governor Edwards activated the states emergency IT response unit which disconnected most webpages as state servers shut down for inspection and debugging.
"To prevent it from spreading we shut down of the state's network traffic," says Jacques Berry, with the Division of Administration.
He says a similar attack took place over the summer with some of the state’s school systems. "Our staff went in and cleaned those up as well. They're very experienced with this kind of thing."
The Office of Motor Vehicles seems to be most impacted by the IT shutdown. All 79 OMV locations were forced to suspend operations. But, Berry says, no personal information was leaked due to the attack.
"We did not have any kind of data or security issues of any kind. We are working to bring the servers back up one-by-one," Berry says.
State officials say no ransom was paid to the suspected attackers.
Anyone with business with the state is urged to call ahead today to see if the agency computers are up and running... from the Office of Motor Vehicles to the Department to Social Services and all other offices.