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State Senate Democratic leader Jay Costa said Monday that while his caucus has been frozen out of its computer network, "Our phones are operating, our offices are open, our members are conducting business as usual."

A Friday-morning "ransomware" cyberattack from an unknown source has left state Senate Democrats unable to access emails, internal working documents and other files.

Ransomware attacks frequently encrypt the contents of a server, making it inaccessible to its owner absent some form of payment, often in online currency.

Mr. Costa, who said he was following the guidance of investigators, would not disclose the terms being set for return of the material. But he added that "Right now we have no intention of dealing with the demand."

Mr. Costa said Democrats are continuing to work with Microsoft and law-enforcement on a forensic audit of the system, which he hoped would be available later Monday. That, he said, should give Democrats a sense of how broad the attack is, and how the Senate Democrats' servers were infiltrated.

This is different than a hack," Mr. Costa said. "As we know right now, theres been no compromise of the data. ... Theyre simply blocking access to us to be able to access our own data."

Mr. Costa said the FBI and the state Attorney General's office were involved in assessing the source and extent of the attack.

At a minimum, the material at issue includes Senator's emails, and working documents like analyses of the state budget currently under discussion in Harrisburg. Also frozen are information in the Democrats' constituent tracking service, which handles feedback from their districts.

Most of that material is backed up nightly, Mr. Costa said, meaning that even if the entire computer network has to be wiped clean, Democrats should eventually have access to material from as recently as Thursday evening. But he noted that would depend on whether the backed-up files had themselves been affected by the attack.

"I believe that wed be able to draw everything back down, provided that it wasnt compromised," Mr. Costa said. "We dont know that yet.

Asked why Democrats had been subject to attack, Mr. Costa said he had reached no conclusions, though he did refer to recent reports "that progressive agencies have been subject to attacks like this." Bloomberg News has reported that hackers, apparently from Russia, have been threatening to divulge information obtained from the networks of left-of-center groups like the Center for American Progress.

Although none of the other caucuses have been affected by a ransomware attack, Mr. Costa said that Senate Democrats "have everything that we should have, based on what Microsoft has told us .. in terms of defensive mechanisms.

He said the inaccessibility of fiscal documents would not affect the course of budget negotiations, but he added, At this point, were trying to ascertain the scope of what we dont have access to."

He said he hoped Microsoft could provide a "side-by-side" email system by Wednesday or Thursday to allow emails to come through. In the meantime, though, "Each of our members are communicating with folks in our district to let the know that a phone call will be preferable."

Chris Potter: cpotter@post-gazette.com

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Cyberattack still affecting computer network of Pa. Senate Democrats - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette