Congressional representatives from Massachusetts are calling for a federal crackdown on ransomware, a form of malware that hackers have used to cripple state and local agencies — sometimes for weeks — by locking their computer systems and demanding payment to release them.
In a letter released Friday, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, along with eight of the state’s representatives, asked Homeland Security for more help with a problem that has affected communities across the state.
The letter urges the Department of Homeland Security to “broaden its existing efforts assisting state, local, tribal, and territorial governments’ responses to these attacks.”
The members of the Massachusetts delegation cited attacks in Leominster, where officials paid $10,000 to recover locked files last year; in Athol, where police lost many records after refusing to pay a ransom this year; and New Bedford, which suffered a similar attack this year.
Another agency that has been affected is the state’s public defender service. Early this year, the Committee for Public Counsel Services had its operations slowed to a crawl for weeks after an attack in which the culprits demanded a ransom in bitcoin.
The agency refused to pay, opting instead to recover its files from a backup, but the lengthy process postponed some legal matters and delayed payment for lawyers.
In the letter, the lawmakers — all Democrats — praised efforts by the Trump administration to combat such attacks. But they asked for more information about what is being done, and what Congress can do to help. They also requested a list of programs available to local governments seeking to prevent them.
“Given the recent spate of attacks across Massachusetts, [we] ask that you provide our staff with a briefing on your ongoing efforts to limit these attacks,” the letter said.
Andy Rosen can be reached at andrew.rosen@globe.com.