Hackers Who Locked Down Mecklenburg County’s Servers, Have Not Gotten Access to Anyone’s Personal Information

MECKLENBURG COUNTY– We know hackers who locked down Mecklenburg county’s servers, did not get access to anyone’s personal information. More than a dozen systems impacted by last week’s ransomware attack are now back online. We now know 17 applications are back online.

“We are in the midst of a crime scene investigation,” says Mecklenburg County IT Services Chief Keith Greg.

It’s not a traditional crime scene, but it’s being investigated like one.

“We are an increasing cyber-crime target and we will need to accelerate our strategic planning effort.”

As forensic analysis gets underway, county manager Dina Diorio says right now they’re in the recovery phase, trying to get everything up and running. but it may take a few more weeks.

“We’re going to be looking at additional steps we need to take to make our infrastructure more secure and we’ll bring some recommendations to the board in the next few weeks,” says Diorio.

Mecklenburg County has spent a pretty penny on cyber-security. Commissioners appropriated 16 million dollars for IT security over the last three years. Even with security plans in place, experts say it can happen to anyone, so all you can do is spread awareness.

This attack was described as a ‘snatch and go’ attack, where hackers look for weaknesses in the system and exploit them. When the investigation is through, Diorio says they’ll take a long hard look at their planning efforts.