Arkansas Hit By Malware, Many Senate Websites Down

A malware attack prompted the Arkansas Department of Information Systems (DIS) to place a moratorium on zip files in the state’s email system until the problem is resolved.

The DIS tweeted a notice of the problem the morning of Jan. 21. Blocking zip files was the “only remedy available” to halt the spread of infected files across the state’s network, according to the office. 

The Arkansas DIS notice comes hours before another series of government website outages announced by USA Today.


Todd Inskeep, an advisory board member of the RSA Conference, told Government Technology that it's generally not a good idea to tweet or otherwise publicly share any information about an ongoing cyber attack.