Clark County investigating malware attack that took down network servers; some service gradually returning

Clark County officials said Friday it is unclear when their network will be fully restored after malware activity caused it to go down.

The county reported on Thursday that all of their computer servers where down. However, the 911 system remained working amid the incident.

“We can confirm Clark County’s 9-1-1 system is operational, and public safety is not at risk at this time,” said Michael Cooper, the Clark County Public Information Officer.

County officials said that an investigation is underway as they work to determine the source of the malware activity as well as its overall impact.

Clark County Commissioner Melanie Flax Wilt said that the county is working with third-party cybersecurity consultants in regards to the investigation and members of local law enforcementare also assisting in the matter.

Flax Wilt did not name the consultants and said that she did not have a timeframe as to when most of the servers would be back online.

County officials said that the investigation does involve criminal activity and that there is no evidence at this time that the county’s information has been compromised as a result of the malware activity.

They said that includes no evidence so far of a data breach, indicating that the publics’ information is safe and has not been compromised.

“We need to determine the extent of the incident and how to bring all of our services back online. So we just ask the public to be patient with us and each of the county elected officials’ offices and the county offices as we work through this incident,” Flax Wilt.

County officials said they are still determining what costs will be associated with the aftermath of the malware activity and the investigation into it.

Elements of the county’s network are gradually coming back online. However, the process is still ongoing, officials said. Flax Wilt did not share which elements are back online but said it relates to public safety as well as communication.

“As we evaluate things we want to make sure that anything we bring back online has not been compromised,” she said.

As a result of the servers being down, the county was asking its partners to be cautious when opening emails from within the organization.

The county had no access to services such as records request, county searches, case number searches, images or dockets related to the Common Pleas Clerk’s Office, according to Clerk of Courts Melissa Tuttle.

The county still has paper files and people can search for cases that way with a case number, and Title Offices are not affected, Tuttle said.

“Our servers with the county are down for the Common Pleas Clerk’s Office, we do not have access to search internally. We can pull physical case files if we know a case number,” Tuttle posted on her Facebook page on Thursday.

The Clark County Board of Elections released a statement on Friday regarding the malware incident in which representatives said they are aware of the malware event involving the Clark County government computer network.

Representatives of the Board of Elections said they are monitoring the situation and have proactively engaged their IT and cybersecurity providers to review systems and ensure they are secure.

“We are fully committed to the security of the data and systems in our care, and we will continue to monitor the evolving situation with the county and continue to be vigilant for attempted intrusions on our network,” the statement said.

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