Matagorda County in Texas declares a state of disaster following a cyber attack

Matagorda County in Texas said it experienced a major cyber security incident that disrupted multiple online services and forced county officials to declare a state of disaster.

 

Matagorda County recently announced in a social media post that on January 24, its IT team identified unauthorised access in its internal network. The county immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident and notified relevant law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, about the same.

 

“The virus appears to have infiltrated the county’s network through an unauthorised access point, impacting various departments and disrupting some operations. While the breach has been contained, the full scope of the incident is still being assessed.

 

“As a precautionary measure, affected systems have been isolated, and an in-depth forensic analysis is underway to determine how the virus infiltrated the network and the extent of the damage,” reads the post.

 

A few hours after identifying the incident, Matagorda County Judge Bobby Seiferman issued a “Declaration of Disaster”.

 

“We are taking this incident very seriously and are working around the clock with cybersecurity professionals to fully secure our systems and ensure the protection of sensitive information,” Judge Seiferman said. “We understand the inconvenience this may cause and are committed to providing transparent updates as we continue to work through this challenge.”

 

The judge has also increased the readiness level of the county’s Emergency Operations Center to a state of “increased readiness”.

 

In another update, the county said that significant progress has been made over the last 48 hours on restoring the county online services. The county is getting assistance from the Department of Public Safety Cybersecurity Division, Texas Department of Emergency Management, and Department of Informational Services to recover from the incident and avoid similar attacks in the future.

 

“At no time has public safety or law enforcement been compromised. All public safety individuals report no problems, including 911 services, radio communications, and EMS. All communications with our volunteer fire departments are working properly,” county officials added.