Hernando County government getting back online after ransomware attack
HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Hernando County started to get back online on Monday after falling victim to a ransomware attack.
For weeks, county sites have been offline due to the attack.
An initial post on the county website said, “Hernando County Government recently experienced an interruption of the county-wide IT network. Upon learning of this interruption, the Hernando County Clerk Information Technology Incident Response Team (IRT) was deployed and immediately began working with third-party computer specialists to investigate the nature and scope of the incident. Please know that the IRT is diligently working to bring the network back online and minimize service interruptions wherever possible.”
“When I came in here to do some business, they told me that their systems were down,” said Jay Cagno, owner of Jay’s Custom Pools & Spas.
Cagno learned something was up last week when he tried to file paperwork for his pool business.
“They didn’t really have any answers for me, but they just said we can’t really talk about it,” he said. “It’s just they’re down for now.”
Hernando County officials sent a statement to News Channel 8 on Monday that confirmed the incident was related to a ransomware attack.
“Hernando County became aware of public posts from cyber criminals claiming to have obtained data during the network interruption recently experienced, confirming we were the victim of a ransomware attack. The County is cooperating with state and federal law enforcement and a team of cybersecurity experts to investigate the claims and the full nature and scope of the incident. At this time, we are unable to provide further information regarding the actions of the cyber criminals but we are working diligently to investigate this. Our team is also working around the clock to resolve the interruption and bring our internal and external facing systems back online. We are making steady progress, and the Hernando County website is up to date with current statuses. We understand how challenging this time has been for residents and businesses in Hernando County, and sincerely appreciate your continued patience and cooperation as we investigate and remediate. The safety and wellbeing of our residents is our highest priority, and we are committed to working tirelessly until the interruption is resolved.”
“It’s crazy. I guess nowadays anything can happen,” Cagno said.
Officials haven’t revealed what information the hackers got their hands on.
Cagno said so far, it was just a minor inconvenience.
“Customers’ information would be in there,” Cagno said. “The only thing that would be there for me would be, I guess, name, address, things like that, but nothing, nothing like no bank statements or anything financial like that.”
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