Cyberattack knocked the Virginia Attorney General's office offline

The Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, led by Jason Miyares, was hit by a cyberattack on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. Suspicious activity was detected early that morning and staff shut systems down the same day.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Steven Popps told employees in an email that the agency had been the victim of what appeared to be a sophisticated cyberattack, and that nearly all systems were offline, including NetDocs, Outlook, Teams, the OAG file share, VPN access and internet connectivity over the office network. The agency's public website was also unavailable.

The disruption reached the courts. The Supreme Court of Virginia and the Court of Appeals of Virginia set up paper filing baskets so lawyers who normally filed electronically could continue to work, and office staff reverted to paper court filings.

Virginia State Police and the FBI opened an investigation, and the Virginia Information Technologies Agency was notified but declined to comment while the inquiry was under way. WTVR reported that the attack was detected early enough to limit the damage. As of mid-February 2025 it had not been publicly established whether ransomware was used, whether a ransom was demanded or whether any data was stolen, and the attorney general's office did not respond to press requests for comment. The office provides legal services to state agencies, boards, commissions, colleges and universities.