Oakland has declared a local state of emergency because of the impact of a ransomware attack that forced the City to take all its IT systems offline on February 8th. Interim City Administrator G. Harold Duffey declared a state of emergency to allow the City of Oakland to expedite orders, materials and equipment procurement, and activate emergency workers when needed.
“Today, Interim City Administrator, G. Harold Duffey issued a local state of emergency due to the ongoing impacts of the network outages resulting from the ransomware attack that began on Wednesday, February 8,” a statement issued today reads.
While last week’s ransomware attack only impacted non-emergency services, many systems taken down immediately after the incident to contain the threat are still offline.
The ransomware group behind the attack is currently unknown, and the City is yet to share any details regarding ransom demands or data theft from compromised systems.
Almost three years ago, in July 2019, Louisiana Governor John Edwards also declared a state of emergency after a wave of ransomware attacks that hit the state’s school districts.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also issued a regional emergency declaration affecting 17 states and the District of Columbia after a DarkSide ransomware attack took down Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the United States.
