CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Time-consuming paper transactions slowed business Thursday in North Carolina\u2019s largest metro area as a county government began the days long process of restoring computer systems locked down by a ransomware attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mecklenburg County was using backed-up data to make digital repairs after refusing to pay foreign hackers that froze dozens of county servers earlier this week. In the meantime, services ranging from processing jail inmates to paying tax bills had to be done by hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darryl Broome, a contractor who does remodeling and demolition work, went in person to a county office to retrieve land information he normally could look up on his home computer. He had to drive 10 miles and spent about a half-hour looking through paper records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit frustrating because you learn that you really need certain things online,\u201d he said. \u201cYou get used to doing certain things online, and when you have to slow down, it costs you time and time costs you money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The county of more than 1 million residents includes Charlotte, but the city government said its separate computer system wasn\u2019t affected by the attack. Nor were the computers that handle 911 calls and dispatch for the city and county, said Charlotte Fire Department Deputy Chief Richard Granger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many county-run services have been delayed. Sheriff Irwin Carmichael said Wednesday it\u2019s taking longer to manually process arrestees, as well as inmates due to be released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, payments to the tax office must be made with a check, cash or money order, while code inspectors have been slowed down by having to use paper records, according to a list of affected services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
County manager Dena Diorio said workers were putting a priority on fixing the systems that power transactions for the health department, court system and the department that oversees building codes and environmental services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cyberattacks on local government are becoming increasingly common and sophisticated. Security experts say Mecklenburg County followed the right steps before and after the cyberattack, including declining to pay the ransom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s become all too common,\u201d said Lawrence Abrams, who runs the cyber security site bleepingcomputer.com. \u201cIt\u2019s smart not to pay the ransom if you can avoid it. In paying these ransoms, it\u2019s obviously encouraging others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Counties in Indiana and Alabama are among those that have paid ransoms to regain access to data after a cyberattack since late last year. The Montgomery Advertiser reported that the Montgomery County, Alabama, faced disruptions to some operations even after paying hackers in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other public organizations have chosen to restore and not pay. In November 2016, a ransomware attack on San Francisco\u2019s transit system resulted in officials shutting down ticketing machines, allowing free rides for much of a weekend. But transit officials didn\u2019t pay a ransom. The St. Louis library system said it took days to restore electronic services for patrons and weeks more to fix all of its computers after it refused to pay hackers behind a ransomware attack this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ross Rustici, senior director of intelligence services at the firm Cybereason, said Mecklenburg County appears to have done a good job of backing up its data if it\u2019s able to restore the system without paying the hackers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt seems like the county was fairly well-prepared,\u201d he said. \u201cOverall, this is not as bad of a story as it could have been.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mecklenburg County computers were hit Monday after an employee opened an email attachment containing malicious software, Diorio said. The attack as publicly revealed the next day. Hackers had sought digital currency worth more than $23,000 to unlock the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A forensic examination shows 48 of the county\u2019s 500 servers were affected, Diorio said, adding that county government officials believe the hacker wasn\u2019t able to gain access to individuals\u2019 health, credit card or social security information. Without getting the compromised servers unlocked, the county will have to rebuild significant parts of the system using backup data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A North Carolina county was working Thursday on the lengthy process of fixing its computer systems after refusing to pay off a hacker who used ransomware to freeze dozens of local government servers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"9":{"categories":["daily-brief","newsletters","home"],"primary_category":"daily-brief"}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3234,823],"class_list":["post-14564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"STYUAQDDMBELNN5UHVX7Y3APSM","arc_canonical_url":"\/civilian\/2017\/12\/07\/north-carolina-countys-ransomware-recovery-will-take-days\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n