RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Virginians can breathe a sigh of relief.
The chief security officer for the state’s I.T. agency says the state has not been affected by the recent cyberattacks targeting federal and state government agencies.
The Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA) says as of June 16, no data has been compromised.
“Within the actual environment so far we have been fortunate that it hasn’t been anything major,” Michael Watson, VITA’s chief security officer, said.
He said while some state agencies and third parties use the file transfer system targeted by hackers, they didn’t use it to send files over the internet.
“We have very limited use of the application that’s causing a lot of the issues in the environment,” Watson said. “Only a few systems had it on it and it was sort of being decommissioned.”
Watson said because attacks tend to happen in waves, his agency is being vigilant to protect Viginian’s data.
“When something isn’t quite right in your home, something is moved in a spot you didn’t leave it, it’s very similar,” Watson explained. “On our computers, if something is put in the wrong location or you see a file that doesn’t belong there, we are able to look for that and identify it’s a problem and respond accordingly.”
Watson says with companies and government agencies across the world affected by the latest breach, consumers can take steps including freezing their credit reports for free.
“It is a good idea right now whenever you have a large-scale sort of scenario like this where you have a popular piece of technology that’s in use in a lot of locations that you be extra vigilant for a while,” Watson said.
VITA wants to remind Virginians that if a government agency or business is hacked, they are required to alert you if you are a victim.
