Louisiana Motor Vehicle Offices Expected To Reopen Next Week

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Branch offices of Louisiana’s Office of Motor Vehicles are on track to reopen next week when officials are expected to complete repairs on computer systems damaged by a cyberattack, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursday.

Motor vehicle offices around the state have been shuttered all week, disrupting Louisiana drivers’ ability to renew licenses and registrations and obtain other services.

The attempted ransomware attack caused the shutdown of state servers Monday, upending online services and email across state agencies.

Most operations were back up and running by Thursday, but the cyberattack caused larger problems at the Office of Motor Vehicles.

“The ransomware attack was largely unsuccessful, in the sense that we did not lose any data and we did not pay any ransom,” Edwards said Thursday at a wide-ranging news conference, his first since winning reelection to a second term. “The duration of this event is going to be measured in days, not a few weeks or months.”

Edwards said he expects the motor vehicle office locations to reopen Monday. The Democratic governor said residents won’t be charged fines for licenses or registrations that expired during the office closures.