Malware Attack Hits West Virginia Agency Computers

More than 20,000 state employees in West Virginia have been told to be on the lookout for suspicious emails, after an Oct. 24 malicious software attack put 1,144 government computers out of service. The state Office of Technology sent warnings to state employees last week. State workers have been instructed not to open unfamiliar Internet links or emails with suspicious attachments.

The “malware” attack infected computers of state employees who use email address that end with “@wv.gov.” The virus spread across numerous state agencies.

“We had to clean and wipe the infected machines,” said state technology office spokeswoman Diane Holley-Brown on Monday. “We did all the protocols, and we’ve finished cleaning nearly all of them.”

The Oct. 24 malware virus also infected numerous organizations throughout the world, Holley-Brown said.

At last count, about 6 percent of all state government computers had to be shut down and repaired.

Most state workers didn’t open the mass email that caused the malware attack, Holley-Brown said.

“It was trying to look like an official email, but there were duplicates of it so you knew something was wrong,” she said. “It had a subject line that wouldn’t necessarily cause concern, but there were several email messages with the same subject line.”

To remove the computer threat, the state technology office worked with the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, National Guard, FBI and the Multi-state Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

The West Virginia Office of Technology first distributed a voicemail message about the malware attack to state employees on Oct. 24.

Later, the office sent out two mass emails to state employees – one that explained the malware attack and another that gave tips for preventing similar incidents in the future.

The Office of Technology also has talked with information technology directors at various state agencies about the infected computers. Malware can disrupt a computer’s operation, steal sensitive information through a practice called “phishing,” and hijack private computer systems.

“These types of viral attacks on computers are common in all organizations and occur daily,” said Gale Given, chief technology officer for West Virginia state government. “For that reason, our technical staff is always diligently monitoring for possible attacks. In this case, we took immediate and continued action to protect the state’s network.”

©2014 The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, W.Va.)