Forget the ongoing hysteria about so-called mass drone sightings, the State of Rhode Island has far more pressing security matters to be concerned about as very real ransomware attackers have struck, Governor McKee confirmed over the weekend. Here's what we know.

A cybersecurity breach has been confirmed by Rhode Island Governor, Dan McKee, which has taken the state's online social services portal, RIBridges, offline as part of the incident response to the ransomware threat.

A Dec. 14 statement by Governor McKee confirmed that information provided the previous day by Deloitte, the RIBridges system vendor, pointed to a "major security threat" with a "high probability that a cybercriminal has obtained files with personally identifiable information." The system has been taken offline as part of a proactive response to enable both the State and Deloitte to address the threat and work to restore system usage as soon as possible.

While ongoing security updates will be made available by the State, potential victims have been warned that the attack, which was first detected on Dec. 5 with federal law enforcement and Rhode Island State Police being informed, escalated by Dec. 10 when the ransomware attackers sent a screenshot of compromised file folders to Deloitte.By Dec. 13, Deloitte had confirmed the presence of malicious code in the system, and was directed by the State to shut RIBridges down so as to remediate the threat.

According to Governor McKee's statement, "any individual who has received or applied for health coverage and/or health and human services programs or benefits could be impacted by this leak." This means that anyone with any of the following programs and benefits managed through the RIBridges system could be at risk:

Although the full details of the extent of any data compromise won't be known until the ongoing investigation is completed, the official statement warned that "Deloitte has indicated that the information involved may include names, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, as well as certain banking information."

Any Rhode Island households that may have been impacted will, Governor McKee's statement said, "will receive a letter by mail from the State that explains how to access free credit monitoring." A dedicated call center is also now open Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. EDT on 833-918-6603. In the meantime, users are advised to "remain vigilant and monitor their accounts for any unauthorized activity."