Two US States Are Now Haunted By Ransomware Attacks Earlier In The Year

New Mexico and Arkansas, United States (US) recently faced ransomware attacks. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - The two states of New Mexico and Arkansas, United States (US) recently faced a ransomware attack that affected government services in their respective regions.

A county, Bernalillo County in New Mexico reported that they were attacked with ransomware attacks that began between midnight and 5:30 a.m., on January 5.

Local officials immediately took all affected systems and network connections offline, most of the buildings were also closed to the public. Emergency services are still available and 911 is still operating. Many other government services are still available over the phone and in person.

In response to the incident, the local government said it was working on this. Bernalillo County spokesman Tom Thorpe said it was not immediately clear whether a specific ransom request was issued by the perpetrators.

While citing ZDNet, Friday, January 7, the Crawford County area of Arkansas is also facing a ransomware attack that began just before the new year.

Crawford County Judge Dennis Gilstrap said a ransomware attack was discovered at the County Assessors' offices on December 27, forcing them to shut down the office servers.

Gilstrap said IT workers in the region had contacted their cybersecurity provider, Apprentice, for guidance on how to deal with the attack.

Last week, Gilstrap said operations of several offices were starting to return to normal, both at the appraiser's office and the tax office. However, he is also still investigating and it will be weeks before they find out whether personal information has been accessed by the attackers.

Ransomware expert Brett Callow explained that although fewer local governments were victims of ransomware attacks in 2021 than the previous two years, 77 versus 113 in 2020 and 2019, it could hardly be considered a win.

"The fact that local governments were hit so early in the New Year is by no means surprising, considering they are falling victim to ransomware attacks at a rate of about 1.5/week," said Callow.

"Actually 77 is too many. This is mainly because there are now more incidents involving data exfiltration, so it's very likely that a ransomware attack against local governments will result in the leaking of sensitive information online," he added.