[BreachExchange] Meck County Still Restoring Systems After Cyberattack

[Destry Winant]

http://wfae.org/post/meck-county-still-restoring-systems-after-cyberattack

It's taking longer than expected to restore Mecklenburg County
computer systems disabled after a cyberattack last month. County
officials had hoped to finish the job by New Year's, but the work
continues.

Spokesman Rick Christenbury said Tuesday most systems used by the
public have been restored, and county tech workers now are focusing
mainly on internal systems. He provided a statement on the work:

Shortly after the attack, departments prioritized the services they
needed restored first.

Those services - including paying taxes online, Code Enforcement, GIS
mapping, the Polaris Real Estate Lookup system, arrest processing, the
courts and interacting with our human services agencies - are now
available.

The remaining repair work is mainly within the County's internal
systems, and we hope to have those restored as soon as possible.

Just before Christmas, the county said 80 of 200 key systems were back
online.  It's now possible to pay taxes online, apply for building
permits and inspections, and look up real estate information. Arrest
processing and court systems are back, as are human services
computers.

County Manager Dena Diorio is scheduled to give give county
commissioners an update at their meeting Wednesday night.

The hack happened in early December when a county employee clicked on
an email link that sent a malicious program onto their own and other
computers and servers. Officials say 48 of the county's 500 servers
and 200 key computer programs or applications were affected.

The program locked the computers, while county officials shut down
others to prevent the infection from spreading. Hackers demanded a
ransom of two Bitcoins, worth more than $30,000 at the time, in
exchange for a key to unlock them. Officials decided not to pay the
ransom, after determining that systems could be restored from backups.