State Agency Under Probe After Paying Ransom to Computer Hackers

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An unidentified Oklahoma state government agency is under investigation over a ransom-ware attack that locked its computers last year and agency leaders decided to pay the ransom.

Word of the incident was revealed last week during a hearing of the House government Modernization Committee. Mark Gower, director of the Information technology Cyber Command testified during the hearing about the number of state agencies that were “unified” and protected by his command. Some agencies had yet to be “unified” and one of those agencies had been hit by hackers.

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Guthrie Rep. Jason Murphey revealed the ransom-ware incident during the hearing but little more was said about it. However, a followup interview by OK Energy Today indicated the agency, which he would not identify, is under investigation. He would also not reveal how much state money might have been paid by the agency in order to get its computers unlocked by the hackers.

Listen to Murphey’s comments in an interview with Michael Dean.