Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office Hit by Major Ransomware Attack, Causing Three-Week Statewide Outage

The Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General reported suffering a significant ransomware attack that caused a prolonged, three-weeks-long outage, severely impacting daily operations at multiple offices across the entire state.

 

On August 11, in a press release, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office reported experiencing a significant network outage that disrupted its official website, email services, and landline communications.. State officials immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

 

 

 

“The network that hosts the Office of Attorney General’s systems is currently down, meaning the office’s website is offline, as are office email accounts and land phone lines. We are taking steps to determine the cause of the cyber incident, and working to restore services on all avenues,” state officials said.

 

In a statement shared with the media, Attorney General Dave said, “This is a frustrating situation, and everyone is doing their very best. I am grateful for the dedication and professionalism of our Information Technology staff who are working around the clock to resolve the matter. In collaboration with our law enforcement partners, we will work diligently to restore systems. We will continue to do the work of protecting Pennsylvanians no matter the obstacle.”

 

On August 29, the Attorney General’s office announced that the network disruption resulted from a ransomware attack, during which threat actors infiltrated its internal network, stole confidential data, and encrypted critical systems.

 

“The interruption was caused by an outsider encrypting files in an effort to force the office to make a payment to restore operations. No payment has been made.

 

“An active investigation is ongoing with other agencies, which limits our ability to comment further on the investigation or response to the incident,” the Attorney General’s Office said.

 

According to the office, while most staff members have regained email access and the main phone line is back up, work to fully restore all operations is still underway.