Mecklenburg County Not Paying Ransom To Computer Hackers

CHARLOTTE, NC -- Mecklenburg County will not pay hackers the $23,000 they demanded in ransom to release data held hostage through a ransomware cyber attack that shuttered the county’s entire computer network. The hackers had set a 1 p.m. deadline Wednesday.

A county employee opening a malicious email attachment Monday led to the cyber criminals taking over Mecklenburg County’s entire computer system, freezing files on numerous servers housing the county’s IT system.

The countywide computer system outage throughout Mecklenburg County offices led to a complete information technology shut down until further notice, county officials said around 1 p.m. Tuesday. "This will affect email, printing and other County applications, including the ability to conduct business at most County offices," the Dec. 5 notice said.

Tuesday night, Mecklenburg County manager Dena Diorio confirmed the system was being held for ransom. Diorio told commissioners Dec. 5 that while she was open to paying the ransom, it would have to be paid in bitcoin, and that there was risk that even after paying they would not provide the encryption key to release the files. She said the hacked information did not include sensitive personal information, such as health records or social security numbers, the newspaper reported. The county’s efforts to retrieve the information also includes working with a third-party company.

After consulting several experts through the day on Wednesday, however, the decision was made to not pay and rely on backup data, Diorio said in a statement.

“I am confident that our backup data is secure and we have the resources to fix this situation ourselves,” said Diorio. “It was going to take almost as long to fix the system after paying the ransom as it does to fix it ourselves,” she said.

“And there was no guarantee that paying the criminals was a sure fix,” Diorio added.

Using backup data will require the county rebuild applications from scratch. The county will prioritize affected systems for Health and Human Services, the Court system and Land Use and Environmental Services.

Here is a list of the computer systems currently unavailable, according to the county manager’s office:

HUMAN RESOURCES
• Applicants cannot apply for vacant positions.

TAX OFFICE

• Property tax payments cannot be made at the Wilkinson Boulevard location.
• Tax records and payment information cannot be accessed online or by telephone.
• All online services, including online payment options, are not available.
• Payments made by mail will not be posted until tax systems are available.
• Once tax systems are available, payments received by mail and in person will be posted in the order received resulting in a delay in checks being cashed.
• Real estate and personal property tax payments can be made in person at Walton Plaza if the taxpayer presents the bill(s) with payment. We do not have the ability to look up bills for the taxpayers to pay.
• Gross receipts tax payments can be made in person at the Hal Marshall Center if the taxpayer presents the completed tax return(s) with payment. We do not have the ability to look-up information for taxpayers.
• Payments must be made with a check, money order, or cash. Credit and debit card payments cannot be accepted.

REGISTER OF DEEDS

• All computers used to complete marriage applications, assumed business names research and filing, and record research are not operational.
• Many professionals that frequent the ROD for research have prepaid for copies, they will be unable to access those funds for those services as well.

LUESA

• Code and Storm Water Services cannot review plans or issue new permits.
• GIS cannot provide addressing and other services.
• Air Quality services for asbestos reviews, etc. cannot be performed until the system is up.
• Code enforcement inspection process will be slowed due to paper process.

ASSESSOR’S OFFICE

• County Assessor’s Office reports AssessPro (The Real Property appraisal system), NCPTS (the personal property appraisal system and the billing and collection system) are down.
• Polaris and Tax Bill look up county web links are down.

PARK AND RECREATION

• Online reservations are down.

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES
If you have made a transportation reservation through DSS/MTS scheduling, please call Customer Connection at 704-336-4547 to confirm your transportation. This includes reservations made for bus passes and vendor transportation for trips scheduled through Dec. 11, 2017.

CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT

• Please call your agent to see if services are available.

FINANCE

• Automated payments, invoicing, procurement, etc. This means no Electronic funds transfers, processing of procurement requests in the system, or other similar transactions at this time.

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