The Virginia State Police shut down its email system on Wednesday night to strengthen its defense against a sophisticated new form of malware that infected the law enforcement agency’s network at the end of last week.
State Police Superintendent W. Steven Flaherty said the agency hoped to restore email service, allowing computer communication with its public affairs office and updates to the Sex Offender Registry that have been disrupted since the shutdown after 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
“It didn’t disable us,” Flaherty said in an interview with Richmond.com on Thursday. “We disabled us in order to deal with it.”