‘Potential’ cyberattack cripples New Orleans city websites after mandatory computer shutdowns

New Orleans city employees were told to shut down and unplug their computers Friday after a “potential cyberattack” was detected, officials said on an official city Twitter account.

#Alert: At approximately 11am today, the @CityOfNOLA detected suspicious activity on its networks that indicated a potential cyberattack.

— NOLA Ready (@nolaready) December 13, 2019

City Hall workers were warned over a loudspeaker about the incident, nola.com reports.

Most city websites were down Friday afternoon, although officials said emergency communications including 911 were still up and running. The non-emergency 311 service is also reported up, with people wishing to file online requests directed to a non-city-domain website to do so.

The incident comes less than a month after a ransomware attack crippled Louisiana state government servers, leaving some motor vehicle offices shuttered for weeks. Other cities, including Baltimore and Atlanta, have also faced cyberattacks in recent years that left officials scrambling to provide city services with computers and networks down.