Louisiana's governor declared a state of emergency after a cybersecurity attack on government servers

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Friday following a cyberattack on state government servers.
The state of Louisiana activated its cybersecurity response team following a ransomware attack on government servers on Monday, but the state did not lose any data nor pay any ransom, according to a press release.
The attack prompted an outage of "many state websites and emails" on Monday "due to the state taking extreme emergency protective measures, including shutting down server traffic, to neutralize the attack."
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Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency on Friday following a cybersecurity attack on state government servers.

The state of Louisiana activated its cybersecurity response team following a ransomware attack on government servers on Monday, but the state did not lose any data nor pay any ransom, according to a press release. The attack prompted an outage of "many state websites and emails" on Monday "due to the state taking extreme emergency protective measures, including shutting down server traffic, to neutralize the attack."

"These protective actions likely saved the state from data loss and weeks of service outages," the press release said.

The declaration will allow several agencies — specifically the Office of Motor Vehicles, Department of Transportation and Development and the Department of Revenue — "to take actions, including waiving fees and fines, to assist members of the public," according to the release.

"We appreciate the patience of the public as our team of experts has worked around the clock to restore online services related to this cybersecurity issue," Edwards said in a statement. "We know that some people may have missed filing deadlines or incurred fees because of the outage, which the emergency declaration allows us to correct so that the members of the public are not penalized unnecessarily."

The attempted ransomware attack is being investigated by state police and federal agencies.

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