Fulton County commissioners held an emergency meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss the two-week-old cyberattack that took down many county computer systems. Then, after 90 minutes of closed-door discussion, commissioners adjourned without taking any public action and refused to answer any questions as they left.
The county announced Thursday afternoon that commissioners would hold an emergency special meeting “to discuss and deliberate upon elements of response to Fulton County’s recent cybersecurity incident which require immediate consideration and action by the Board of Commissioners.”
The commission convened at 4 p.m. with Chair Robb Pitts, Commissioners Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, Dana Barrett, Bob Ellis and Bridget Thorne present. County staff said Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. would participate via Zoom.
They immediately entered executive session, publicly reconvening 90 minutes later without giving any hints as to the nature of the attack or any impending action.
State and federal law enforcement agencies are involved in the investigation, and county officials have cited that process in limiting details released about the cyberattack.
Several outside cybersecurity experts have told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the hack looks like a ransomware attack.
At the regular commission meeting Wednesday, County Manager Dick Anderson said the two-week-old cyberattack said all county offices have reopened but many were using work-arounds to compensate for computer systems that were still down.
The attack took down the county’s phone system, which runs over the internet; the internal financial system; online court and law enforcement systems; tax offices; and public-use computers at libraries, among other things.
Anderson said Wednesday about 450 phone lines were working again, the county would pay employees on time, and most public services were again available.
County officials have dismissed rumors that the attack was political in nature. Elections Division Director Nadine Williams said Thursday there is no evidence elections were a specific target, but as a precaution the connection between state and county election systems was severed.
That has been restored, and election systems are “up and running,” she said.
“We are on target to prepare for the March 12 election,” Williams said.
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