Pennsylvania’s Office of Attorney General (OAG) has confirmed that it has been hit by a ransomware attack, causing delays to civil and criminal court cases.
The state’s Attorney General, Dave Sunday, confirmed the incident knocked OAG servers offline earlier in August.
“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,” Sunday revealed in an update published on August 29.
The OAG has not provided any indication whether data was potentially stolen in the attack.
“An active investigation is ongoing with other agencies, which limits our ability to comment further on the investigation or response to the incident,” Sunday continued.
“We have been providing regular updates to the public about the incident and we will continue to do so. Those updates will include notifications to individuals if the investigation reveals such notifications are necessary,” he added.
The Pennsylvania OAG is the top law enforcement officer for the state, with responsibilities including prosecuting criminal cases and enforcing consumer protection laws.
Incident Delays Criminal and Civil Court Cases
A number of Pennsylvania courts have been forced to issue orders providing time extensions on criminal and civil cases as a result of the technical disruption.
“However, we do not expect – based on what the investigation has revealed so far – that any criminal prosecutions or investigations or civil proceedings will be negatively impacted solely due to the outside interruption,” Sunday noted.
The cyber incident was first disclosed on August 18 and saw the OAG’s website taken offline as well as office email accounts and land phone lines disabled.
The latest update confirmed that the majority of OAG staff now have access to email and are using it to communicate with constituents and stakeholders.
Additionally, the main office phone line and the website are back online.
Work to restore full functionality is ongoing, while the OAG is working with other agencies “to avoid a similar scenario.”
“Overall, OAG staff – approximately 1200 people stationed at 17 home offices across the Commonwealth – are performing their daily duties, albeit parts of their work is being done via alternate channels and methods,” Sunday commented.
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