Montgomery County Offices Recovering From ‘Ransomware’ Attack On Government Computers
Montgomery County officials are still trying to get to the bottom of a computer ransomware attack on government computers.
Officials say they aren’t giving in to the ransom demand from the attacker, and are focusing on getting affected county operations back up and running.
Officials say no personal data was taken in the security breach, but several Montgomery County offices are still recovering from the attack that crippled many of their systems. “We are still down in our pistol permit area, because that runs through the county network” said Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham.
The probate office has regained access to their system’s back up, but the breech has had an impact on the business tax filing deadline which was September 20th. Business taxpayers can not file forms manually, but can still file online through the Alabama Department of Revenue. Penalties for filing late may be waved on a case by case basis.
Taxpayers with questions can contact the Montgomery County Commission Tax and Audit Department at 334-832-1697 or taxaudit@mc-ala.org.
The county’s 9-11 phone line and radio communications, and telephone system were not affected by the breech and the Sheriff’s Office is back to operating electronically.
The FBI is investigating the attack, as well as the county’s information technology department. The IT department has released limited info on the county’s next steps to combat similar attacks. Sherrif Cunningham warns “all of this it let’s people know that everybody is vulnerable, so be very careful about people sending you emails and people sending you stuff, if you don’t know them, delete it”.
