The city of Covington in Louisiana is reportedly facing a massive cyberattack affecting the emergency services. All government systems have been compromised.
The hack’s news appeared on the city’s Facebook page Thursday morning.
Covington Cyberattack
“Currently we are locked out of all computer and phone systems including Police, Fire, Public Works, Finance, and access to all e-mail.” – officials confirmed.
They asked if anyone is experiencing an emergency to call 911 (Sheriff’s Department). For non-emergency issues, text “CPDLA” followed by your message to 847411. That text will be sent anonymously to the Covington Police Department.
The extent of the hack and when the city of Covington will restore access to its systems is still unknown.
On March 5, a massive cyberattack hit thousands of Microsoft customers across the world. Hackers were successful in accessing the email accounts of at least 30,000 organizations in the US. In response, the Biden government announced to form an emergency task force to address the second major cyberattack hitting the US since the election.
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, stated that the breach showed a significant vulnerability that could have far-reaching impacts.
On Tuesday, a gang of hackers was able to break through a massive trove of security camera data collected by Verkada Inc. As a result, it could access live feeds of 150,000 surveillance cameras inside hospitals, companies, police departments, prisons, and schools, a Bloomberg report confirmed.
Hackers gained access to video from inside women’s health clinics, psychiatric hospitals, and the offices of Verkada itself.
SolarWinds hack
In February, tech executives disclosed to the US Senate’s select committee that during the hack of SolarWinds last year, hackers probably working for Russia had invaded the government agencies and companies using Microsoft and SolarWinds programs.
The Microsoft president, Brad Smith, said its researchers believed “at least 1,000 very skilled, very capable engineers” were part of the SolarWinds hack.
