The Maryland Department of Health’s website went offline over the weekend, and instead redirects visitors to the main landing page for the state’s government after a network security breach
The Maryland Department of Health’s website went offline over the weekend, and instead redirects visitors to the main landing page for the state’s government after a network security breach, a department official said.
The outage was first reported by the Washington Post on Sunday evening. Their reporting suggests the outage is the result of a ransomware attack, though the extent of the invasion is not yet known.
Andy Owen, spokesman for the health department, told WTOP that the Maryland Security Operations Center is in the process of “investigating a network security incident.”
“The Maryland Department of Information Technology, the Maryland Department of Health, and the Maryland Department of Emergency Management are working closely with federal and state law enforcement partners to address the incident and to gather additional information. Certain systems have been taken offline out of an abundance of caution and other precautions have and will be taken,” Owen said.
“The investigation is ongoing, potentially affected employees and partners have been informed, and we will provide additional information as circumstances warrant.”
WTOP’s Juan Herrera contributed to this report.
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