Virginia legislative agencies shut down by ransomware attack

Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The Virginia Legislature's IT branch was shut down on Tuesday after it was targeted by a ransomware attack that's also affecting other state agencies.

Officials said the state first became aware of the attack late Sunday night, starting with the Department of Legislative Automated Systems. By early Monday, the attack had spread to almost all legislative websites, but hadn't yet affected executive branch agencies of state government.

Virginia's Division of Capitol Police website remained inaccessible through Tuesday morning.

The state said it was shutting down computer servers in an attempt to limit the scope of the attack.

"Currently the bad guys have most of our critical systems locked up," DLAS director Dave Burhop told the Senate and House of Delegates on Monday, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Burhop confirmed that Gov. Ralph Northam's office received a ransom note, but did not elaborate.

Virginia was one of more than 10 states affected by a ransomware attack that shut down a key gas pipeline in May, causing fuel shortages across large areas of the country.