NEW ORLEANS — The City of New Orleans has reached an important milestone in its recovery from the crippling Dec. 13 cyberattack: all computers and servers are clean and are back in operation.
Information Technology Director Kim LaGrue said city employees can now use email and the Internet, and begin the painstaking process of retrieving data.
“Our work to restore access to the city’s computers is complete,” LaGrue said in an exclusive interview with WWL-TV. “We have re-imaged and cleaned over 3,000 computers and servers. Those devices are back and our users are back to work.”
LaGrue said it will take several additional months to restore access to data, including inputting records that have been written by hand over since the attack. Restoring access to previous emails alone, for example, will be a long, cumbersome process.
But LaGrue emphasized that no data was permanently lost.
The city will restore data department-by-department, starting with public safety agencies such as the police department, fire department, EMS and homeland security, she said. While none of those agencies lost emergency response capabilities, access to computerized data – such as police reports – was cut off due to the ransomware attack.
“Today we begin the process of restoring data,” LaGrue said. “And that means departments, especially our public safety teams….We are prioritizing public safety because right now we are focusing on Mardi Gras.”
Many city departments are now faced with the task of transferring pen-and-paper reports into the electronic systems that were used before the attack. The safety and permits department, for example, must log about 6,000 permits that were written by hand.
LaGrue said the price tag to clean and restore the city’s computer system will come to about $7 million, with about half of that covered by insurance.
We’re excited about where we are today,” LaGrue said. “We’ve been able to shift our access to just restoring access and getting users back on their computers. And now we can move full speed ahead for this event and restoring access to that data.”
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