This Tuesday, Winona County administrators detected and responded to a cyberattack on our information technology systems. Since the hack, I have been in consistent communication with Winona County Emergency Management Director Ben Klinger, as well as Winona County board members, and City of Winona staff.

Due to security concerns, the nature of the information that was hacked has not been released to the public, and county systems have been taken offline. I am grateful to Governor Walz for his activation of the Minnesota National Guard's Cyber Protection Team to assist us with the protection of sensitive data.

The FBI has been contacted and is aware of the situation. 

I will continue to facilitate communications between local and state agencies to ensure that our area receives all of the resources that we need to combat the cyber threat, and to get our systems back to normal as soon as possible. 

Cyberattacks like this are a frustrating reality of the modern era and highlight Minnesota's aging IT infrastructure. At the State Legislature, I am in support of measures to allocate funding towards an IT system overhaul that will use artificial intelligence software to help combat future hacking attempts.

I will be releasing further updates as events unfold.