(21 Oct 2019) Ransomware attacks have taken out computer systems at law enforcement agencies and local governments around the country in recent years, forcing them to revert to pen and paper for tasks typically done in an instant on computers.
Ransomware renders files inaccessible unless a computer user pays thieves to release them.
The attacks have slowed commerce by making electronic copies of real-estate records inaccessible and taking down online payment features.
They can also endanger people when they affect critical law enforcement systems or school security.
Officials in Jackson County insisted they were able to find ways to work around the attack. But details they provided show that it made law enforcement officers more vulnerable and could have hindered emergency responses in the rural county of about 70,000 people northeast of Atlanta.
On a tour of the sprawling jail on a recent morning, the sheriff pointed out a central command system that allows staff to monitor inmates and remotely open their cells. Mangum also stopped at a videoconferencing system that lets inmates talk to family from their cell blocks.
Both went down during the attack, requiring guards to go into cell blocks to open doors and escort inmates to family visits. The additional contact increases the risk to guards.
At the 911 center next door, dispatchers lost the computers that allow them to enter calls and monitor the locations of available emergency responders.
Dispatchers, instead, took notes by hand and relied on printed maps of the county and paper logs to keep track of emergency responders in the field, said LouAnn David, the county's E-911 director.
Jackson County paid $400,000 to obtain a decryption code that allowed it to restore computer systems, county manager Kevin Poe said.
Still, dispatchers were without computers for about two weeks, according to David.
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