New Orleans Shuts Down City Network Due to Ransomware Attack

United States cities have been experiencing cyberattacks multiple times in the last few years, and in several examples, the attackers targeted the entire cities’ networks. The best-known examples of this were attacks against Dallas in 2017 and a ransomware attack that hit Baltimore earlier in 2019. Now, it appears that in the final days of 2019, hackers decided to target another city, this time moving against New Orleans.

New Orleans Under a Ransomware Attack

According to reports, the attack started on December 13th, around 11 am. This was reported by NOLA Ready, New Orleans’ emergency preparedness campaign. NOLA Ready announced that there are signs of suspicious activity within its network and that there is a possibility that a cyberattack is underway.

#Alert: At approximately 11am today, the @CityOfNOLA detected suspicious activity on its networks that indicated a potential cyberattack.

— NOLA Ready (@nolaready) December 13, 2019

The employees shut down their computers and disconnected all devices from Wi-Fi. The city even powered down servers out of precaution. Later on, during a press conference, New Orleans’ mayor, LaToya Cantrell, stated that the reports about the city being under ransomware attack were true. New Orleans declared a state of emergency and taking necessary precautions affected a number of functions. However, the crucial services, such as fire departments and the police, remained fully operational during the incident. However, under the circumstances, the authorities canceled all events until the ongoing incident was handled.

Still Under Investigation

For now, the city is still investigating the attack, and they are doing so in collaboration with state and federal law enforcement. This includes the FBI, Louisiana State Police, the Secret Service, as well as the National Guard. For now, New Orleans’ official statement is that there is no indication of a major data loss, as the city managed to respond to suspicious activity rather efficiently. However, ransomware attacks are still extremely dangerous and disruptive, and they are continuously becoming more and more powerful and acute. They could easily affect essential functions and infrastructure, including factories, airports, hospitals, ATMs, and more. The threat is even more dangerous since many US cities are still using old and outdated systems that are no longer supported by their developers. This leaves them vulnerable to attacks targeting newly discovered flaws. However, updating operating systems at a city-wide scale is a complex task, which is often delayed, hence the success of multiple previous attacks of this kind.

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