Suffolk County government dealing with serious fallout due to September's cyberattack
HUNTINGTON STATION, N.Y. -- Suffolk County's government website, hacked by cyber criminals more than a month ago, is grappling with fallout.
As CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported Friday, most vendors who contract with the county are not getting paid. They say they are barely hanging on to hope that the businesses they love won't go under.
"It's a piece of sunshine every single day,' resident Fahad Khan said.
Khan said his family feels blessed to be running the nonprofit learning cottage daycare in Huntington Station. More than half of the 20 children are needy and subsidized through the county's Department of Social Services.
"That brings us into a very scary situation," Khan said.
That's because Suffolk County government suffered a crippling cyberattack in early September that shut down systems, including financial management.
"So I just had to stop our payroll tax payment for this month," Khan said.
Suffolk County's outside vendors are owed $140 million since the breach. Khan said he doesn't know how much longer he can hold on.
"Oh my credit score, I'm tanking right now," he said.
The county says to be patient, adding it has started to restore some services such as 911 and property title searches. Everyone will be paid, said John Kennedy, the county's comptroller.
"My hope is that we have regular, conventional bill paying, hopefully at the outset, the next 30 days," Kennedy said.
Suffolk County has spent about $1 million investigating the hack. Officials have not said if the anonymous malware attackers have demanded a specific ransom.
Rosana Filingeri is with Cybersafe Solutions.
"I think the first step for them was what's been accessed?" Filingeri said. "How long have these bad actors been here? The biggest thing is that."
Meanwhile, the crisis magnifies each day.
"When can I see my check from August? That's all I'm asking for is my payment from August, and it's already October," Khan said.
New web security measures are being installed. Suffolk County has no timeline for full restoration.
The county says critical emergencies have been given the highest priority, and has cost county vendors more than $40 million in the past month.