OMAHA, Neb. — A significant outage affecting the state government’s computer systems resulted in the suspension of various services, including the operations of the Legislature and driver’s licensing offices, for several hours on Thursday.
The state’s Office of the Chief Information Officer reported that this disruption impacted all state connections, leading to the shutdown of numerous agency websites, including those of the Health and Human Services and Transportation departments. In an unusual turn of events, the outage even disabled the illuminated display board in the legislative chamber, which tracks lawmakers’ votes.
The complications proved to be severe enough that the Legislature was forced to adjourn shortly after meeting, without engaging in discussions about the numerous bills that were scheduled for debate. Fortunately, lawmakers were able to reconvene in the afternoon for committee hearings regarding proposed legislation.
By early afternoon, specifically before 1 p.m., state websites and communications returned to normal, though the cause of the outage remained undisclosed at that time. Ezra Effrein, a spokesperson for the chief information officer, mentioned that an investigation was currently underway to determine the root cause of the incident. When questioned about the possibility of a malicious event being the cause, Effrein indicated that it was premature to draw any conclusions.
The office of Governor Jim Pillen was also affected by the outage, resulting in its website becoming inaccessible, but officials there stated they lacked additional information about the potential cause of the disruption.
