(TNS) — Albemarle County residents and employees’ personal data may have been compromised in the June “cybersecurity incident” that took down the internet in county offices.
The county announced Thursday that what it has been describing only as a “cybersecurity incident” since June 12 was in fact a ransomware attack.
‘Cybersecurity incident’ blamed for Albemarle County internet outage
Albemarle County government buildings remain without internet after what officials are now calling a “cybersecurity incident.”
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that restricts access to computer files and then demands a ransom payment for their release.
Albemarle County spokeswoman Abbey Stumpf said in a Thursday statement that “the ransom was not paid to the cybercriminals,” without clarifying who those “cybercriminals” are or if any suspects have been identified.
What Stumpf did say was that the personal data of county residents and employees had likely been accessed.
“The data that was illegally accessed may include information, including name, date of birth, Social Security numbers, and other similar identifiers,” reads Stumpf’s statement. “Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that the information is being used for harm.”
Stumpf said that the evidence indicates that only data from the local servers was involved, and no data held on cloud-based systems was compromised.
While it appears “likely” that Albemarle County government and public school employees’ data was accessed, Stumpf said residents’ data only “may” have been accessed.
Stumpf said an investigation into the attack is ongoing with the aim of pinpointing exactly what and whose data was accessed.
Stumpf did not immediately respond to Daily Progress inquiries regarding when employees and residents would be notified if their data was compromised, or why the county waited a month to share the news of the ransomware attack.
The county knew it was a ransomware attack the morning of June 11, and that the attack began the evening of June 10, according to Stumpf’s statement. She said the county notified the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Cyber Fusion Center of the Virginia State Police; all three agencies have been investigating the attack.
News of the attack was only announced after Albemarle County government office buildings lost internet on June 12, the same day that multiple internet providers in Central Virginia reported outages and search engine giant Google’s cloud crashed.
The county has not responded to Daily Progress inquiries as to whether any or all of the outages were connected.
The county is offering free credit monitoring, fraud consultation and identity theft restoration services to Albemarle County residents and employees for the next 12 months through Kroll, a financial and risk advisory firm based in New York City.
“We recognize how important personal information is and take our responsibility to protect it seriously,” Albemarle County Executive Jeff Richardson said in a statement. “While we have no evidence that anyone’s personal information has been misused, we want our community to feel reassured and supported. Virginia law does not require us to take this step, but we believe it is our responsibility to go beyond the minimum.”
County employees and residents interested in using Kroll’s services can call Kroll directly at (866) 819-9798. To ask the county questions, employees and residents can call (434) 872-4572 or email askaquestion@albemarle.org.
Stumpf said that since the incident, Albemarle County has completed a comprehensive review of its systems and implemented additional safeguards.
More information can be found online at albemarle.org/cybersecurityincident.
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