EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

On Wednesday, the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, declared a statewide emergency after malware attacks took down networks, and rendered files inaccessible in three districts across the state.

To his credit, Gov. Edwards had previously established a Cybersecurity Commission that would take care of mounting a response in the event of a cyber attack. “…we are well-positioned to assist local governments as they battle this current threat,” said the governor.

Declaring a state of emergency enables local governments to tap into a greater number of cybersecurity resources than otherwise, including experts who work with the Louisiana National Guard, and the Office of Technology Services, as they move forward with remediation efforts.

“State officials hope that additional IT expertise will speed up the recovery process so schools can resume their activity and preparations for the upcoming school year,” writes ZDNet. The extra hands could also prove useful in the event that the attack spreads to other areas of the state.

In 2018, the first ever cyber emergency was declared by the governor of Colorado, in relation to a SamSam attack on the Colorado Department of Transportation.

The attack rendered 2,000 agency computers temporarily useless, and after 30 days, only 80% of systems were restored. While the Colorado Department of Transportation did manage to clean-up the attack faster than the average group, the attack still represented a tremendous setback; especially in relation to the 1.5 to 2 million dollars forked over for remediation efforts.

Does your organization have a malware prevention strategy?

For more on the still unfolding Louisiana school districts’ story, please visit CNN.com.