Computers and Phones of Ohio County Government Became Inaccessible

This matter was found when officials of the government could not use their phones and computers on Tuesday. Ransomware is the cause but it is not clear how the network of the county exactly got maligned with the malicious virus which has effectively made the government idle till the matter is solved.

As usual, like most of the attacks by ransomware, this one which hit Licking County, is also demanding a payment to provide return access. In maximum cases, ransomware would encrypt files of the system and make them unreachable till the money is paid.

Network Advocate says that Tim Bubb, Commissioner of Licking County, will not reveal the amount asked by the ransomware nor the government will agree to pay. IBT posted on 2nd February, 2017 stating that the County has contacted experts from cybersecurity to examine the matter and has also alerted the FBI about the situation.

The attack has compelled the departments of the County including the auditor's office of the county and clerk of courts to do their duties without using telephones and computers of the office. The county also warned that it may operate like this throughout the week and everything will be normalize online by Monday but without any graduate.

Citizens of the county can still call 911 center and emergency services for fire, medical and police are still available. The department is operating manually without the help of any computer system.

Sean Grady, director of the Licking County emergency management agency and regional 911 center told: "The department will be bringing laptops in trying to boost the tasks just like their computer system would have performed.

Departments which depend mainly on phones such as the Department of Job and Family Services, are also at loss due to this attack. Applications of Medicaid would usually be processed via the call center but these have been compelled to shift to other places. Family services would handle the cases of Child abuse but those wanting to report incidents, will not be able to call this service.

Licking County is not the only local government which has been targeted as last year, Madison County, Ind. was also targeted by ransomware and it was compelled to carry on manually.

» SPAMfighter News - 2/8/2017