A sign at the Merriam Park Library in St. Paul warns the internet is not working. Many of St. Paul's computer systems are shut down as the city tries to isolate a cyberattack. (Josie Albertson-Grove/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
(Tribune News Service) — The Minnesota National Guard’s Cyber Protection Unit is working to help St. Paul respond to a cyberattack that began last week. This is the first time the eight-year-old unit has deployed to an attack on Minnesota computer systems.
Lt. Col. Brian Morgan, the Minnesota National Guard’s director of cyber coordination, said the guard’s involvement was needed because of the complexity of the attack on St. Paul and the urgency of getting city services back online.
“The nature of the attack is very sophisticated,” Morgan said, of the way the attacker, still unnamed, gained access to St. Paul’s systems. “It’s obviously a professional. There’s more to follow on that.”
St. Paul has been dealing with the cyber attack, which was detected Friday. The city has shut down many of its internet systems to keep the attack from spreading and as a result some services have been disrupted. Morgan said he sees it as critical to get city services back online quickly.
Though St. Paul has analog backups for many systems, including the city payroll, Morgan said he wanted to see the attack contained and city services restored quickly.
The specialized unit’s members have “decades” of training and experience in IT in their civilian careers, Morgan said, as well as training from the military in cybersecurity. “Cyber forces don’t deploy to these missions with any sort of weapon aside from their brain,” he said.
Thirteen members of the Minnesota National Guard are deployed in St. Paul, Gov. Tim Walz said Wednesday.
Stefanie Horvath, St. Paul’s chief information security officer, is a member of the unit and an assistant adjutant army general in the Minnesota National Guard. Morgan said Horvath is working in her civilian capacity for St. Paul on this attack.
Minnesota established the Cyber Protection Unit in 2017. The unit was one of the first three in the National Guard, which now has 23 cybersecurity units. The deployment was formalized after a request from Mayor Melvin Carter and an order Tuesday from Walz, but Morgan said St. Paul had been in contact “a day or two prior,” to alert the cyber unit that the city might need help.
Morgan said the team was in St. Paul within “a few hours” of that request. Coordination between different levels of government on cyberattacks has been improving in Minnesota, Morgan said.
In 2023, the Department of Military Affairs established a “cyber coordination cell,” Morgan said, which meant guard members meet and train regularly with Minnesota IT services and the FBI.
The inter-agency work group received its full funding request in the 2025-26 state budget, Morgan said, allowing for regular coordination before any attacks.
“The state has prioritized security and security operations,” Morgan said.
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