A Dozen Connecticut State Agencies Targeted by WannaCry Ransomware

Government officials have revealed that WannaCry ransomware affected more than 100 computers at a dozen Connecticut state agencies.

According to Connecticut’s Department of Administrative Services (DAS), state officials detected the digital attack against 160 computers at 12 state agencies on 23 February. Jeffrey Beckham, a spokesperson for the agency, says that IT personnel worked on the issue all weekend and had largely resolved the attack by the evening of 25 February, reports The Washington Post.

DAS Chief Information Officer Mark Raymond confirmed that level of progress in a statement obtained by NBC Connecticut.

State technology resources have made significant progress and expect a full containment this evening. We have no reports of files being encrypted or any data loss.

Raymond went on to explain that Connecticut’s IT staff had notified commissioners about the issue. He also said they didn’t anticipate any lingering problems would noticeably affect the network or state business during the following work week.

The Department of Administrative Services is still reviewing reports about what happened. At this time in the DAS investigation, the incident appears to match a WannaCry ransomware infection.

Back in May 2017, WannaCry ransomware made headlines globally when it abused a leaked Windows exploit to self-propagate across vulnerable machines. The threat affected hundreds of thousands of computers at many high-profile targets. Those victims include the telecommunications giant Telefonica and 34 percent of National Health Service (NHS) trusts in England.

As the attack against Connecticut’s state agencies reveals, threats like WannaCry can still target computers months after they’ve been detected. They can even infect machines protected by anti-virus software and other precautions.

With that said, organizations need to protect themselves against WannaCry and work to prevent a ransomware infection in the first place. They can do so by following these practices. Additionally, companies should use a (Read more...)