The Iran war has brought cyber warfare to the front of political discussion specifically on critical infrastructure. Water and wastewater systems across a minimum of 12 states in the United States have recently reported cyberattacks. Reports point to a hacker group linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Local government institutions are targeted because these institutions use legacy systems that don’t have advanced security capabilities to defend themselves against highly sophisticated security threats.
Attacks on the DMV
When focusing on the DMV/Maryland, in 2022, according to an FBI report, the state of Maryland was one of the top five states most at risk of cyberattacks. That included their local government agencies, systems, institutions, and critical infrastructure. According to a study conducted by NetworkBuildz, Maryland was in the top three states at risk of cyberattacks in 2023. According to an analysis done by Cherry Servers, Maryland is the 10th most vulnerable state to cyberattacks in 2025.
In 2014, there was a cyberattack on the University of Maryland. It compromised the personal information – including social security numbers, university ID numbers, names, and dates of birth – of over 309,000 staff, alumni, and students. In 2017, the government website of Howard County was hacked and displayed messages in support of the Islamic State. There was an attack n 2018 targeting the computer-aided dispatch on the Baltimore PD that shut down 311 and 911 systems for 17 hours. In 2019, the city of Baltimore fell victim to a ransomware attack, shutting down city services for months and costing the city $18.2 million on mitigating the attack.
Baltimore County Public Schools had to shut down in 2020 as a result of a ransomware attack. In 2021, there were three major cyber/ransomware attacks on the Turning Point Clinic, the Maryland Health Department, and Anne Arundel County. The cyberattack on Turning Point clinic compromised patients’ personal information, and as Baltimore’s largest substance abuse treatment clinic, this was significant. The ransomware attack on the Maryland Health Department disrupted and shut down services, one of which was the Baltimore city government’s COVID-19 tracker. The targeted ransomware attack on Anne Arundel County was based on a vulnerability found in a human resources tool used by firefighters and police officers to track their hours.
Effects of Cyberattacks
In 2023, there was a cyberattack on Prince George’s County public school system, leading to the exposure of personal data of close to 100,000 people and resulting in a network shutdown. In 2025, the Maryland Department of Transportation was “ransomwared” leading to the stealing of personal data such as home addresses, social security numbers, driver’s license information, passport data, and other legal documents from Maryland residents. Again in 2025, Anne Arundel County was hit with a cyberattack that affected several systems within the county’s computer network. In 2025, there was also an attack on the Baltimore City Public School system, stealing personal data/information of thousands of students, employees, contractors, and volunteers.
The duress that these cyber criminals can put on communities is high, and leverage increases over time for the attacker because of the compounding impact of damage made while the systems are compromised. A quick counter claim to this idea is that these actors are only interested in the ransom money. So, they actually have less leverage the longer the network is compromised, because that allows cyber teams more time to address the issue without having to pay ransom. That was the case with the Baltimore City Public School incident.
When It’s Not About the Money
However, in a more adversarial situation, like the Iran war or the US relationship with China, how do these institutions protect themselves from an attacker who disguises their intent in a basic ransom plea but actually has no financial interest? When they only want to hold the city hostage? When the actual goal is to create as much damage as possible, then the game changes.
The issue at hand is not in how to prevent a cyber-criminal from using ransomware on local government institutions in Maryland or any other state. It’s how to prevent a cyberattack that could cripple small businesses, local industries, close down schools, create fear, anxiety, distrust, and potentially a fundamental breaking down of community and our social network.
Featured image/photo by FlyD on Unsplash.
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