County Regaining Control Over Computer Systems Following “Incident” Last Month

Fayette County Emergency Management Coordinator Angela Hahn reports that the County is regaining control over its computer systems following what appears to be a cyber attack last month.

The “incident,” as County leaders have referred to it, began around March 2 when County employees were locked out of their email along with most other county computer systems. Hahn told the Record last Thursday that the County’s email system was back up and running, along with the computer-aided dispatch system used by the Sheriff’s Office, EMS and other first responders.

The County Clerk’s Office and District Clerk’s Office had to manually process reams of paperwork so that court cases, real estate transactions and other legal business could continue while their computer systems were down.

“It’s been a long process, but it’s moving,” Hahn said.

Hahn praised the County’s IT Director Kevin Wunderlich along with other County staffers working on the computer issues.

“There are still a few functionalities that they aren’t able to get working,” Hahn said. “So we’ve got to get some vendors in here to rebuild some of those things that are outside of our control.”

Hahn said the investigation into the cause of the computer problem remains ongoing. That’s a subject County leaders remain tight-lipped about. The Record asked whether the investigation is criminal in nature.

“At this point it’s just an active investigation,” she said.

The Record also asked whether the County had to pay a ransom to regain control of the computer systems.

She responded by saying, ”This is still an investigation.”