Oakland declared a local state of emergency due to the impact of a ransomware attack that forced the city to take all of its computer systems offline on February 8.

Acting City Administrator G. Harold Duffey declared a state of emergency to allow the City of Oakland to expedite orders, supply materials and equipment, and activate rescuers when needed.

“Today, Acting City Administrator G. Harold Duffey issued a local state of emergency due to the continuing impacts of network outages resulting from the ransomware attack that began Wednesday, February 8,” said a statement issued today. bed.

The incident did not affect basic services, with 911 dispatch and fire and emergency resources all operating as planned.

While last week the ransomware attack only affected non-emergency servicesmany systems taken down immediately after the incident to contain the threat are still offline.

The ransomware group behind the attack is currently unknown, and the city has yet to share details regarding ransom demands or data theft from compromised systems.

A City of Oakland spokesperson could not provide additional details when BleepingComputer requested more information immediately after the incident was disclosed.

“The city’s IT department is working with a leading forensics company to perform in-depth incident response and analysis, as well as other cybersecurity and technology companies on recovery and remediation efforts,” says the press release.

“This continues to be an ongoing investigation with multiple local, state and federal agencies involved.”

Almost three years ago, in July 2019, Louisiana Governor John Edwards also declared a state of emergency after a wave of ransomware attacks hit school districts across the state.

That month, computer systems in the Morehouse, Sabine, Monroe City, and Ouachita school districts were all taken offline after being encrypted with ransomware, causing disruptions to school systems statewide.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) also issued a regional emergency declaration affecting 17 states and the District of Columbia after a DarkSide ransomware attack destroyed Colonial Pipelinethe largest fuel pipeline in the United States.

Brett Callow, threat analyst at Emsisoft said that “at least 6 US local governments have already been hit by ransomware this year, and at least 4 of them have had their data stolen.”

Microsoft too revealed as of January, it now tracks over 100 ransomware gangs known to have deployed over 50 unique ransomware families through the end of last year.