A particular county inside New Jersey is still suffering from a recent ransomware attack last week. The ransomware has laid waste to several local governments and affected several operations.
Somerset has a current population of approximately 350,000. The county suffered a data breach incident which resulted in the disruption of email systems. Its officials had also decided to develop a temporary Gmail account so that its residents could reach their departments, such as Health, Emergency response, Clerks, Sheriff, and Surrogate.
The ransomware attack has affected most of the virtual offices of Somerset County.
Moreover, some county officials encouraged anyone visiting the county office to schedule an appointment to confirm if the services were available. The attack forced Somerset County to cancel an important meeting between several commissioners.
Fortunately, emergency communications, such as 911, were not affected by the ransomware attack and were fully operational throughout the week.
The New Jersey-based county then revealed an update stating that one of the county clerk’s offices could not serve most of its functions that needed internet access. These functions include gaining access to land history records, probate records, title inventory before 1977, and vital statistics.
County officials urged those who requested mail-in ballot replacements to call their office since New Jersey is executing primary elections and the deadline to apply for the mail ballots at the end of the month. County officials then noted that the campaign did not impact the election systems.
Somerset indicated that they are in the process of keeping the network-linked computers turned off since any emails to any officials will not be received or entertained. The Count spokesperson assured everyone that they worked tirelessly to address this current situation. Their IT department is also working under a deadline to evaluate and assess their condition to prevent further damage.
According to county officials, they expect to recover all necessary features of their county from going back to their usual way of living. The attack on Somerset County is the 17th ransomware attack that officially struck the United States in 2021.
