Texas county issues disaster declaration following cyberattack

A Texas county authorities that serves about 40,000 residents is affected by a cyberattack that pressured officers to declare a catastrophe over the weekend.

On Friday, Matagorda County’s Emergency Operation Middle revealed a press release warning {that a} cybersecurity breach had been found “involving a virus that has affected a number of inner programs.” Matagorda County Decide Bobby Seiferman issued a declaration of catastrophe primarily based on the safety breach. 

“We’re taking this incident very severely and are working across the clock with cybersecurity professionals to completely safe our programs and make sure the safety of delicate info,” Seiferman mentioned. “We perceive the inconvenience this may occasionally trigger and are dedicated to offering clear updates as we proceed to work by means of this problem.” 

Officers mentioned the breach seems to have been contained to inner county programs, with help from cybersecurity specialists, the Division of Public Security Cybersecurity Division, the Texas Division of Emergency Administration and the Division of Informational Providers. The FBI has additionally been notified of the incident. 

Dwelling to greater than 37,000 residents, the county is about an hour and a half away from Houston. The cyberattack was found on Friday morning and has been sourced again to an “unauthorized entry level, impacting numerous departments and disrupting some operations.”

In an replace on Sunday, the county mentioned it made progress in restoring some on-line providers. The county positioned drop containers close to the Matagorda County tax workplace for tax funds due on the finish of January. 

In-person funds at authorities places of work can’t be carried out, however residents can mail in checks. Emergency providers weren’t impacted by the incident.

The county continues to be investigating the reason for the disruption, and no hacking group has publicly taken credit score for the incident. 

A number of different municipalities have been pressured to declare disasters in response to cyberattacks and ransomware incidents, together with a county in Indiana and a metropolis in California. 

The catastrophe declaration got here on the identical day that one other main Texas establishment — the Texas Tech College Well being Sciences Middle — reported that greater than 530,000 folks had info stolen throughout a ransomware assault final fall. 

The group beforehand mentioned troves of names, Social Safety numbers, healthcare data and extra had been stolen by hackers through the incident. A ransomware gang named Interlock took credit score for the assault.

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