Jackson County in state of emergency after ransomware attack

Jackson County, Missouri, is in a state of emergency after a ransomware attack took down some county services on Tuesday, April 2.

"Jackson County has confirmed a ransomware attack was responsible for the disruption of several county services today," the Missouri county said.

The Assessment, Collection, and Recorder of Deeds offices at all County locations will likely be closed until the end of the week as the IT department works on restoring tax payment, marriage license, and inmate search systems impacted in the incident.

However, according to a statement published on Tuesday, April 2 the Kansas City Board of Elections and Jackson County Board of Elections are not affected by this system outage.

Officials have alerted law enforcement, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, and are working with external IT security experts to investigate the attack.

Jackson County Executive Frank White, Jr. declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, April 2 to expedite IT orders, activate emergency workers, and protect against a ransomware attack.

"All county staff are to take whatever steps are necessary to protect resident data, county assets, and continue essential services, thereby mitigating the impact of" the ransomware attack," White said [PDF].

"The County Administrator is directed to evaluate the need for appropriations from the County’s emergency fund and, if necessary, identify

additional financial adjustments to address the fiscal requirements imposed by this emergency."



Ransomware attack warning on Jackson County website (BleepingComputer)