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EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH, La. (WAFB) - St. George Fire Protection District No. 2 filed a lawsuit against its former IT security provider, alleging the company’s failures led to a cyberattack that compromised the fire district’s network.

St. George Fire Protection District(St. George Fire Protection District)The lawsuit, filed March 20 in the 19th Judicial District Court, claims General Informatics LLC breached its contract and fiduciary duty by failing to provide adequate cybersecurity services between February 2021 and March 2024.<br>General Informatics filed a response on May 18 seeking to compel arbitration and stay the litigation, according to court records. A hearing is scheduled for July 13.

According to the petition, law enforcement alerted St. George on Dec. 23, 2023, that the fire district’s network had been infiltrated by threat actors who had also attacked another General Informatics client.<br>Law enforcement found evidence that hackers were “living off the land” within St. George’s computer network, according to the lawsuit. The term refers to threat actors using legitimate system tools to carry out malicious activities.<br>Security failures alleged<br>The lawsuit claims St. George discovered multiple security vulnerabilities after the breach, including unpatched servers, no network backups despite monthly payments for backup services, and administrative passwords stored in plain text.<br>General Informatics used the same username and password for its remote access tool across multiple clients, according to the petition. The lawsuit alleges the company continued using compromised credentials for other clients, including St. George, even after learning in November 2023 that the credentials had been breached.<br>Join the Conversation

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St. George’s domain controllers were compromised, according to the lawsuit. Domain controllers manage network security and authenticate users within a Microsoft Windows Active Directory domain.<br>The fire district was forced to completely rebuild its IT infrastructure, including new servers, switches, domain controllers, firewalls, and backups, according to the petition.<br>Contract details<br>St. George contracted with General Informatics in February 2021 for cybersecurity and information technology services under a “Total Care” Cloud Program package, according to the lawsuit. The package included proactive monitoring, patch monitoring, anti-virus software, and remote management software licensing.<br>The contract required General Informatics to provide professional services “in accordance with the generally accepted standards of good computer systems maintenance,” according to the petition.

St. George paid for 24/7 proactive monitoring to keep the fire district’s infrastructure services running, according to the lawsuit.<br>Additional allegations<br>The lawsuit claims General Informatics failed to warn St. George that its network was vulnerable after another General Informatics client suffered a ransomware event. The two organizations were connected through a Computer-Aided Dispatch system.<br>St. George also alleges General Informatics billed the fire district for remediation efforts and the company’s own attorney fees following the cyberattack.<br>The fire district terminated its contract with General Informatics on May 30, 2024, according to the lawsuit.

Company response<br>General Informatics filed an Exception of Prematurity or alternatively a Motion to Stay and Compel Arbitration on May 18, according to court records. The filing seeks to dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice or compel the fire district to arbitration.<br>St. George Fire Protection District No. 2 provides fire and prehospital medical services for the area south and east of Baton Rouge. General Informatics is a managed security service provider based in Baton Rouge.<br>The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages, general damages and attorney fees. St. George has requested a jury trial.<br>Click here to report a typo. Please include the headline.

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