A “cybersecurity incident” targeted Fulton County government computer systems over the weekend, County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said Monday afternoon.
“At this time we are not aware of any transfer of sensitive information about Fulton County citizens or employees,” he said during a five-minute announcement from county commission chambers.
Law enforcement is investigating, and until that’s concluded the county will be releasing limited information, Pitts said.
The resulting outage affected “a number of our primary technology platforms,” including phones in offices countywide, the court system and the tax system, he said.
Pitts said he didn’t know when those functions would be restored.
County External Affairs Director Jessica Corbitt said officials wouldn’t answer further questions Monday.
“There’s a lot we will not be able to answer today,” she said.
Many Fulton County computer systems went down, and several county offices were closed or providing limited service on Monday as a result.
Most offices were unable to take phone calls because those run through the county computer system, according to a Fulton County news release. Customer service requests can still be made at customerservice@fultoncountyga.gov.
The Fulton County Tax Commissioner’s downtown office was closed on Monday, and satellite offices were limited to processing tag renewals at kiosks and answering general questions.
Affected phone systems include the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, according to that agency’s post on X, formerly Twitter.
“The outage is countywide, so all departments are affected,” the post says. The sheriff’s office can still be contacted via email at FCSO.Communications@fultoncountyga.gov.
Public computers at county libraries will be unavailable on Monday, but other online library systems including the catalog are still working, the county news release said.
Property tax transactions and legal transactions “may be limited” during the computer outage, the release said.
“These include firearms and marriage licenses,” according to the news release.
The city of Atlanta suffered a devastating cyber attack in 2018 that cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Two Iranian citizens were eventually charged in that ransomware attack. Henry County schools suffered a similar attack in November. That attack forced teachers to use graph paper and overhead projectors instead of laptops for nearly two months.
The DeKalb County School District said a 2019 security breach of a school nutrition technology services company may have exposed the personal information of select students.
More recently, the Walker School, a private institution in Cobb County, alerted more than 1,000 people that their names, addresses and Social Security numbers were stolen during an October computer hack. And the University of Georgia notified faculty, staff and students earlier this year of a breach of a widely used file transfer program that could have compromised their personal data.
The attacks also have been felt nationally, with school systems in Los Angeles, Des Moines, Iowa, Las Vegas and Prince Georges County, Maryland, struggling to protect student and staff information. Some have been forced to offer credit counseling and cancel school for a few days while the issues were addressed.
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