The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) first reported the outbreak on Friday, describing it as a "coordinated ransomware attack." The agencies hit were mainly smaller local governments in the Lone Star State.
"At this time, the evidence gathered indicates the attacks came from one single threat actor," the department said in a followup statement on Saturday.
A spokesman for the department declined to name the ransomware strain involved and which cities were hit. But the department confirmed that computers at 23 government entities in the state were infected. How much the hackers are demanding in ransom, and whether the state will pay it, is also unknown, but the department plans to issue an update today or tomorrow, the DIR's spokesman said.
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Anyone can be a potential target of ransomware attacks, and it's best to beef up cyber security protocols before it's too late.
Government, schools, and hospitals have routinely come under attack from ransomware attacks because they tend to use older, legacy IT systems that use un-patched software, making them vulnerable to easy exploitation.
Ransomware attacks can often be delivered via an email containing a malicious attachment.
A ransomware attack has infected computers at almost two dozen government agencies in Texas.