Louisiana is among a handful of states recognized in a recent national report for increasing its collaboration between the state and local governments to combat—and increasingly to prevent—cybersecurity attacks.
The report, produced by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, comes as a majority of publicized cybersecurity attacks in the U.S. last year targeted local governments. Louisiana itself reported a handful of major cyberattacks last year, the true costs of which are still being calculated.
A survey included in the study reports that just 65% of states extend security infrastructure and service to local governments, and even those services vary widely from state to state. The report also notes a separate cybersecurity study from Deloitte-NASCIO in 2018 that found more than 70% of state chief information security officers said ransomware attacks were a higher threat than other cyber threats.
July’s ransomware attack hit five of the state’s school districts, causing Gov. John Bel Edwards to issue the first statewide emergency declaration tied to a cyber incident. If it had not been contained, the attack would have spread to other districts, state officials said at the time.
In December, New Orleans was hit by a massive attack that shut down many services for weeks, backlogging court systems and other basic city services. That same month, the Rapides, Washington and Orleans parish sheriff’s offices were targeted by hackers.
On the state level, Edwards declared another state of emergency in November after cybersecurity attacks shut down many state agencies. While the attack stalled operations for days and weeks, the state lauded its response—which included shutting down servers to stop the attack—as a success for not losing any data or paying a ransom.
Most of these incidents are noted in the latest report from the NGA in a breakdown of how Louisiana tackles the issue of sharing cybersecurity resources.
It cites Louisiana as among states that believe assisting local governments is an important part of statewide risk management—particularly from a preparedness perspective—while many others have little to no engagement with local entities.
It also highlights the state’s Information Security Team and the Cybersecurity Commission, which together address a range of cyber threats and provide incident response services for local governments.
During the school district attacks in July, the commission’s emergency support function was activated after local entities quickly reported the incident. That quick response and coordination were attributed to stopping the spread of the attack.
A representative of the commission couldn’t be reached for comment before this afternoon’s deadline.
