Minnesota Activates National Guard After St. Paul Cyberattack

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has activated the National Guard to assist the City of Saint Paul after a cyberattack crippled the city's digital services on Friday. "The city is currently working with local, state, and federal partners to investigate the attack and restore full functionality, and says that emergency services have been unaffected," reports BleepingComputer. "However, online payments are currently unavailable, and some services in libraries and recreation centers are temporarily unavailable." From the report: The attack has persisted through the weekend, causing widespread disruptions across the city after affecting St. Paul's digital services and critical systems. "St. Paul officials have been working around the clock since discovering the cyberattack, closely coordinating with Minnesota Information Technology Services and an external cybersecurity vendor. Unfortunately, the scale and complexity of this incident exceeded both internal and commercial response capabilities," reads an emergency executive order (PDF) signed on Tuesday.

"As a result, St. Paul has requested cyber protection support from the Minnesota National Guard to help address this incident and make sure that vital municipal services continue without interruption." "The decision to deploy cyber protection support from the Minnesota National Guard comes at the city's request, after the cyberattack's impact exceeded St. Paul's incident response capacity. This will ensure the continuity of vital services for Saint Paul residents, as well as their security and safety while ongoing disruptions are being mitigated. "We are committed to working alongside the City of Saint Paul to restore cybersecurity as quickly as possible," Governor Walz said on Tuesday. "The Minnesota National Guard's cyber forces will collaborate with city, state, and federal officials to resolve the situation and mitigate lasting impacts."

Being born and raised in Minnesota..

[ndsurvivor]

I am proud of them that they will help out their neighbors in that way. I have fond memories of good neighbors, of good education, and of decent people there. To me, Minnesota sets an example of what the USA should emulate.

Re:

[usedtobestine]

WTF can the national guard do to help mitigate being hacked? Who are they going to shoot?

Re: Being born and raised in Minnesota..

[Pascoea]

Why would the Guard's cyber division be shooting anybody?

Re: Being born and raised in Minnesota..

[burtosis]

Why would the Guard's cyber division be shooting anybody?

Haven’t you heard of screen shots?

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[Anonymous Coward]

Minnesota has a dedicated cyber unit in the Guard: the 177th Cyber Protection Team (CPT).

These are citizen-Soldiers who work full-time in cybersecurity: analysts, engineers, and incident responders from across the private and public sectors. Many hold certifications like CISSP, CEH, and OSCP.

They are trained to:
Contain and mitigate active threats
Perform forensics and recovery
Coordinate with MNIT, DHS, FBI

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[maitai]

Yeah.. I flew into Minneapolis for a 1 month contract job and got mugged by 4 people on my 6th day there. Was fun.

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[Anonymous Coward]

I've lived and worked in the Twin Cities for 30+ years - including spending plenty of time in "bad" neighborhoods - and have never once been mugged. Sounds like you lack any sort of street smarts.

Re:Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

[ndsurvivor]

Did you just "own him", and is all that you care about? What about the values that every child who goes to school should have a good breakfast and lunch? If that is not first and foremost, the rest of the education really doesn't seem to matter, if you really think about it.

Re:Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

[ndsurvivor]

That is a sweet thought, but a conservative ideal should be to get the most bang out of a buck. A hungry kid is not going to learn as well as a kid with a nutritional diet. The teaching and the building costs much more than some fruit and bread.

Re:Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

[burtosis]

Not to mention well educated children tend to be more productive workers paying more taxes and improving the economy and systems everyone uses. Kids who can’t get basic needs met like being fed and who don’t get an education tend to have more problems including being ostracized by the system who then wind up doing crimes because that’s what it takes to get by like getting your car or house broken into. Neglecting part of the population is a sure fire way for far larger costs down the road and not just for them, they often make it our problem too. It’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure everyone is taken care of on a basic level.

Re:Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

[ndsurvivor]

I was reminded a few weeks ago, that the purpose of the Russian and NK troll farms is to divide Americans. I keep having these 'fights' with "MAGA's"... so I fall into the trap too. I would like to think that all Americans support the ideal of feeding and educating our kids, and the value in helping our neighbors in need.

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[registrations_suck]

Parents who fail to feed their children properly should lose parental rights and their children given to someone who will feed them properly.

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[ndsurvivor]

In the extreme, maybe. I would start with the point of view that every parent wants to feed their children well, and wants them to be prosperous. If a parent is not fulfilling that ideal, .. then ?? Maybe give them some support and help? or punish? or ignore?

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[registrations_suck]

In the extreme, maybe. I would start with the point of view that every parent wants to feed their children well, and wants them to be prosperous.

That certainly the describes the ones that leave their kid(s) in the car to die in the heat while they visit the adult store, bar, casino, etc.

If a parent is not fulfilling that ideal, .. then ?? Maybe give them some support and help? or punish? or ignore?

There is ample help for parents already. If they're still managing to not feed their children properly, it's either intentional or gross stupidity. Either way, they shouldn't have custody of children.

Re: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

[Pascoea]

How's the view from that high horse? I'm sure you and the MN legislator who isn't aware that there are kids going hungry in his district would get along pretty well.

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[ArchieBunker]

Sounds great in theory. In practice the world is full of assholes and incompetents who should have never procreated. Why should those children suffer?

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[bussdriver]

Fuck you! No seriously, you are the lowest scumbag in this discussion. So seriously sick and twisted it's not worthy trying to reason with you. People like you need to be put into a psych ward before we find the uneaten bodies in your freezer.

Re:

[ndsurvivor]

I watched him from afar, and I don't know many of the deets, but he did not seem so bad.

What is the National Guard

[Anonymous Coward]

going to do against a cyberattack? Asking honestly?

Re:

[ndsurvivor]

Apparently are not just full of rednecks. They are educated, high tech workers.

Re:

[ndsurvivor]

I am not the subject of this thread, however, it is interesting to know that there are trolls everywhere who are ready to do personal attacks. You enshittify with every post that you post.

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[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

What is the TSA going to do against a determined airline hijacker?

Re:

[ndsurvivor]

Why would a person become a determined airline hijacker? What is the thought process behind that?

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[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

IDK, they're all dead.

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[registrations_suck]

Could be lots of reasons.

D.B. Cooper did it for cold, hard cash.

Others have been motivated by a desire to escape whatever shit hole they were stuck in at the time.

Others have been motivated (allegedly) by religion/politics.

Others are probably seeking fame.

Others just want to kill people.

Personally? If I were going to do it? Kinda hard to say. I'd either end up in jail or dead by the time it was over, so that leaves out a lot of motivations simply by thoughtful elimination. So, I guess I would probably do i

Re:

[ndsurvivor]

That is a well thought out explanation. It does really come down to fame. I can not understand it, it is like my mind is the complete opposite of those people, as I think yours is too. To me having some life and freedom is more important.

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[registrations_suck]

Some people have no life and their freedom is useless because they're losers. So all they have left is to try for fame.

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[ArchieBunker]

9/11 changed hijacking forever. Nowadays the entire plane is going to bring an ass whooping.

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[ceoyoyo]

The US national guard website is "configured to block access from [my] country" so I can't be sure, but I expect the "cyber soldiers" might be doing a lot of carrying backup tapes around and typing things like "tar -xz" and "passwd -l".

Re:

[burtosis]

Well that was definitely what DOGE was doing. Probably why Elon was so sure who was in the files.