City of New Orleans under cyber attack

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BREAKING NEWS: City of New Orleans reportedly under a cyber attack. City employees have all been instructed to turn off their computers.

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NEW ORLEANS — Computer systems owned by the city of New Orleans were reportedly targeted by a cyberattack on Friday afternoon.

City personnel, including police and firefighters, were advised to "power off all computers and shutdown cellphones," as dispatchers announced the attack over radio channels.

A spokesperson for the New Orleans Police Department said the cyberattack has not affected the 911 emergency system.

The full extent or type of attack was not immediately known.

"The City of New Orleans is under a cyber attack. Please power off your computers and unplug them immediately. Await further instructions," an internal text message from the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said.

The city's website, NOLA.gov was unavailable on Friday afternoon.

A ransomware attack hit several Louisiana state government computers last month. The state quickly shut down network traffic to prevent the spread, and have brought most state offices back online since. The ransomware attack damaged 10% of Louisiana’s computer servers for state government. But officials say no data was lost and no ransom was paid.

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