The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts announced this week that it identified an intrusion in the security of its information technology system late last month that forced the museum to take the website offline for a state investigation.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that there’s no evidence to suggest that the breach is linked to the ransomware attack on Virginia legislative agencies’ IT systems. The state police are investigating a ransomware attack on state legislative agencies, which was unearthed late Sunday night.
In addition, there is no evidence that private or financial detail was accessed or compromised, spokeswoman Jan Hatchette stated in response to an inquiry by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The museum said it hopes to restore the website by the end of next week.
According to the museum, an independent agency of the state, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency discovered a breach in the website in late November, along with “evidence indicating an existing security threat from an unauthorized third-party.”
As a precautionary measure, the museum website will remain offline until the breach is investigated, contained and the website’s functionality is restored. A temporary website was put up “until the restoration is complete,” Hatchette stated.
"We realize that this has been an inconvenience to our members, visitors, community and staff and we appreciate their patience and support as we work diligently to restore our website to its full capacity (hopefully by end of day Friday). We are committed to the ongoing enhancement of our website security infrastructure in an effort to prevent incidents like this from occurring again," she concluded.
Earlier this week, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services also acknowledged that its IT system for employee timesheets has been "crippled" by a ransomware attack on the global KRONOS network that serves the executive branch agency. However, the organization adopted a manual system to ensure that the staff was paid on time.
"State facilities have switched back to manual systems that are very time-intensive, but they will get the job done and ensure staff are paid," spokeswoman Lauren Cunningham stated.
Last year, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest school system was targeted and the hackers demanded a ransom payment in exchange of stolen personal information. The school system blamed the problems on internet provider Verizon, but Verizon said it did not experience any service outages.
