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A hacking group did not release any data it claimed to have stolen from Fulton County despite a countdown appearing on its website.
“Once again, we have not paid any ransom nor has any ransom been paid on our behalf,” Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Ellis said during an incident briefing on Thursday afternoon.
LockBit removed Fulton County from its leak site once the deadline passed Thursday morning.
Krebs on Security reported that security experts say “LockBit was likely bluffing and probably lost most of the data when its servers were seized” 10 days ago by U.S. and U.K. law enforcement.
Pitts acknowledged that though the original LockBit ransomware site had been seized and shut down by law enforcement, the hacking group put up a new site on the dark web that listed Fulton County as a victim with a renewed threat release.
“Right now, as I stand here at 4:08pm. we are not aware of any data having been released today so far,” Pitts said during the briefing. “Now, that being said, that does that does not mean the threat is over, by any means. And they could release whatever data they have at any time today, tomorrow, or sometime in the future. We simply have no control over that.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Saturday that a new countdown was set to release those documents, which counted down to 8:49 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 29. After that deadline passed the Fulton County posting on the LockBit site was removed.
Fulton County still doesn’t know what data the LockBit group may have accessed, a statement released earlier this week said. The county is working with cybersecurity experts to determine what data may have been stolen, and to get a better understanding of what information may be involved.
“If we determine that peoples’ personal information was involved in this incident, we will make all legally required notifications and provide them with resources to help protect their personal information,” the statement said.
Rough Draft Atlanta reported on Feb. 20 that the U.S. Justice Department in collaboration with other international law enforcement agencies had shut down much of LockBit’s dark website, which included information about Fulton County.
The county continues to work in partnership with local, state, and federal officials and law enforcement.
Pitts first addressed ransom payments in a press briefing on Feb. 20, during which he said that the county had not paid the original ransomware demand from LockBit.
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