The stringing together of three words, Friday the 13th, has established itself as an unlucky myth in western folklore.
Friday, December 13, proved to be an unlucky day for the city of New Orleans. Since then, a ransomware attack has resulted in an official state of emergency in the city.
NOLA Ready, New Orleans’ emergency preparedness system, initially reported the attack as “suspicious activity was detected on the City’s network,” according to Deadline’s article, “New Orleans Under CyberSecurity Attack, Declares State Of Emergency.”
As a result of the state of emergency, most of the city’s computer servers have been shut off or powered down by the city’s municipal IT department. Additionally, WiFi connectivity has disconnected as well.
While Mayor LaToya Cantrell has indicated that the local government has not received a ransom request yet, there is currently no timetable as to when services shall resume. The evidence of the attack has come in the form of an increase in reported instances of phishing. At the moment, state and federal authorities are working closely with New Orleans’ emergency services – including police and fire – to investigate the attack.
But New Orleans isn’t alone in the list of targets that have seen these threats. According to TechCrunch’s article, “New Orleans declares state of emergency following ransomware attack”, the attack was “the latest in a string of city and state governments to be attacked by hackers.” This past November, the state government of Louisiana was hit by ransomware – specifically file-encrypting malware demands money for decryption – which resulted in officials declaring a state of emergency. Additionally, Pensacola, Florida and Jackson County, Georgia have experienced ransomware attacks this year.
While the investigation is still in early stages, it begs a greater question about the safety of our data at the highest level. With state and local governments now becoming vulnerable to hacking threats in a similar manner to individuals and organizations, it stresses the importance of improved cybersecurity, from the ground up.
Since then, the attackers have not been identified. It has been perceived that these attacks were a result of exploitations of unrefined mainframe protection on the part of the New Orleans government. Attacks like these both display the sophistication of the perpetrators of today’s cyber-warfare, but also the need for better technological infrastructure.
There’s a lesson in this attack. As street poet and philosopher Drake once said, “You probably think that it’s too far to even have to care. Well, take a look at where you live, what if it happened there?” These breaches can occur anywhere where insecure protection can be exploited to steal coveted information, whether it’s a single person, an institution, or even a government. Preventing attacks and protecting information relies on using malware detection and automated antivirus scans at the software level, and up-to-date machinery when it comes to hardware. These are things we can start to do with our personal devices. To lay the foundation for a more resilient and protected community, we must start with equipping ourselves as citizens and empowering our neighbors to do the same.
While this was an unfortunate incident for the city of New Orleans, it does spread two messages: To have the right technology in place to prevent attacks, and to be wary of Friday the 13th.
Resources
Korosec, Kirsten. (2019, December 14). New Orleans declares state of emergency
following ransomware attack. TechCrunch. Retrieved from
Haring, Bruce. (2019, December 14). New Orleans Under CyberSecurity Attack,
Declares State Of Emergency. Deadline. Retrieved from https://deadline.com/2019/12/new-orleans-under-cybersecurity-attack-declares-state-of-emergency-1202809430/
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