The Illinois county’s eight-month review of a ransomware attack on its computer systems last spring has found that hackers may have been able to view or acquire personal or medical information on more than 600 residents and non-residents.
St. Clair County Courthouse in downtown Belleville, Illinois.
Roughly a month after St. Clair County was allegedly targeted by a ransomware cyberattack, the county is moving to bolster its network’s defenses. But questions still remain on the specifics of the attack.
The county board voted unanimously Monday night to approve a new policy hoped to minimize security risks from future attacks. The new policy adds multi-factor authentication on county accounts and raises requirements on county network passwords.
But the county has yet to comment on the specifics of the attack, outside of confirming that it happened and that the severity of the attack was being investigated by the county and law enforcement.
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On May 28, hackers targeted St. Clair County, Ill., disabling many digital services. While the county has since restored 90 percent of the services, it hasn't commented on the source of the attack.
St. Clair County Courthouse in downtown Belleville, Illinois.
Editor s note: This story was originally published in the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio
St. Clair County’s website is back online following an alleged ransomware attack that may have given a hacker group several gigabytes of sensitive data.
A ransomware group calling itself Grief claimed it targeted the county along with several other organizations demanding payment in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero, according to several publications specializing in cybersecurity.
In screenshots of the group’s website, obtained by the Belleville News-Democrat
, the group claims it has 2.5 gigabytes of data including internal company documents, personal and customer information.