3 Ways TX used disaster plan to counter ransomware

Who explained the situation? Texas CIO Todd Kimbriel

To whom was the situation explained? National Association of State Chief Information Officers annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee

How did the disaster plan work?

• 1st city to detect something was wrong called its managed service provider in the early morning of Aug. 16. By 8:46 a.m.
• Department of Information Resources had been alerted that several local governments around the state had been hit with ransomware
• By noon, the state operations center in Austin was up and running
• Coordinating several different agencies to begin responding to the attack

What agencies coordinated efforts?

• DIR
• Texas Department of Emergency Management
• National Guard
• Texas A&M University

What facilitated this coordination? 2017 legislation that expanded the Governor’s emergency declaration powers to cover cyber events

State Scoop | How Texas used its disaster playbook after a huge ransomware attack