NY governor says cyberattack on legislative office is holding up state budget

A cyberattack on systems used by New York’s legislature to draft and print bills has hampered efforts to enact the state budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul told a local radio station on Wednesday.

Spokespersons for the governor’s office and State Senate did not respond to requests for comment. But Hochul appeared on WNYC radio Wednesday morning to discuss the otherwise completed state budget, confirming that the process was being held up by the cyberattack.

“We have to go back to the more antiquated system we had in place from 1994. You know this happened very, very early in the morning and so we’ve been on top of this. Our understanding right now is that it will take a little bit longer to deal with the legislative side of it because a lot of data is included in the computers,” she said. 

“We’re finding the path forward using the 1994 computers we have that we still have access to.”

She was not sure how long the recovery would take and said they are still trying to figure out who was behind the attack. 

A spokesperson for the State Senate told the Associated Press that members  do not believe the attack will hold up the overall process of getting the bills printed. There are 10 separate bills that make up the $237 billion state budget recently agreed upon by Hochul and the state legislature. 

Due to the attack, only one of the 10 bills was voted on and passed by the legislature on Wednesday, according to local news outlets. 

The attack comes just two weeks after New York City officials dealt with their own wide-ranging cyber incident affecting a platform used by thousands of city workers. 

Hochul has made cybersecurity a pillar of her work since taking office, recently announcing changes to state cybersecurity rules that force regulated entities to report ransomware payments and take other measures to secure customer data.

Hochul tapped former company commander at the U.S. Army Cyber Brigade Colin Ahern to be the state’s first-ever Chief Cyber Officer in June 2022 and added an extra $35 million to the state’s $61.9 million cybersecurity budget last year.