Throughout 2019, several major cities have been held under siege by Ransomware attacks. Within the past year alone, data networks of towns in Florida, New York, Georgia, Alabama, Maryland, and even here in Texas (link) have had their government offices or school districts under the thumb of a cyber-criminal. Unfortunately, now we can add Louisiana to that list of victims.
On Friday, December 13th, 2019, LaToya Cantrell, Mayor of New Orleans, LA, issued a city-wide state of emergency following “a cybersecurity incident” that was detected by their technical investigators, according to their CIO.
The attack prompted the city’s IT apartment to shut down their servers and city computers during the investigation. While New Orleans City Hall is open for normal business hours as of today, some services may be impacted while the remediation takes place.
There is some good news to the response though. Although ransomware was detected during the incident, as of now, no demands of ransom have been issued. Also, the city believes that no employee private information was compromised during the attack and their 911 service was not affected as well.
We hope that nothing else major happens while New Orleans cleans up this ransomware incident, but it is yet another example of how crucial a heightened awareness for cybersecurity and having the necessary online defenses is for any business.
If you’d like a deeper look at Ransomware and how devastating it can be to a business, here’s an additional blog to clearly define what Ransomware is. (link)
As a trusted MSP for over 20 years, neoRhino IT Solutions’ team of engineers and consultants are ready to provide your business state-of-the-art remote managed protection, cybersecurity training, and a multitude of data backup options to protect you from a ransomware attack.
Complete the contact form above or call us at (281) 779-4850 for a FREE Business Assessment & Consultation, and let neoRhino manage your technology so you can manage your business.
