Special National Guard unit for cyberattacks

These images of the Minnesota National Guard Cyber Protection Unit show soldiers fighting a new front in an ever-expanding online battlefield. Lieutenant Colonel Brian Morgan is the Guard's director of cyber coordination. We're used to seeing you right in our communities doing these physical things. This is an entirely new mission, it seems like. Yeah, it's a mission that's new to the public, but we've been preparing for this day for years.

Minnesota is one of only four states with a fully staffed cyber protection team. They've deployed for national defense missions, but this is the first time they've been activated for a state mission. In the world we live in, you don't need bullets to fly out of rifles to be effective.

The unit, along with the FBI, is defending the city of St. Paul from hackers who, on Friday, accessed city systems, causing officials to shut down internet access for all city services and programs. Police, fire, and EMS remain operational, but everything from public works to public libraries are limited in what they can offer. How did that happen? Where did they go? What have they done? And then we're assisting with reducing the risk and closing those holes and making sure that doesn't happen again.

Melvin Carter is the mayor of St. Paul. While these disruptions are difficult, they are necessary steps to limit exposure, preserve system integrity, and protect sensitive information as our investigation and recovery efforts continue.

Since the beginning of the year, dozens of municipalities across the country have come under cyberattacks, according to KonBriefing, an information-security research firm. This is the world we live in now. There's no going back. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle. Tonight, the investigation is ongoing, and so is the battle against the hackers, according to officials. In fact, we wanted to get inside the emergency operations center to see the National Guard in action, but they said because of security concerns, we couldn't go inside. Jonah Kaplan in St. Paul tonight. Thanks.