Washington County Board of Commissioners to vote on next step after cyberattack
WASHINGTON, Pa. (KDKA) — Washington County is still dealing with the aftermath of a cyberattack last month.
The board of commissioners is expected to finalize a vote on what to do on Thursday, but the process has left some feeling left in the dark.
The cyberattack shut down the daily functions of Washington County back in January. It shut down the county's main server and work continued to get services back even last week.
"The risk of an attack is not only that the system be disrupted, but that we lose private information of participants in the system or a ransomware attack," said David Hickton, founding director of Pitt Cyber.
Hickton is a former U.S. Attorney. He said there are three ways municipalities can avoid a mess like this. Those include having backup systems, better training for employees and investing in cyberinfrastructure.
"We have these old legacy systems that are especially vulnerable," Hickton said.
The FBI and Homeland Security are investigating this attack. Reportedly, the process of figuring out what to do was in an "emergency meeting" that had allegedly not been publicized in a timely manner.
The Observer-Reporter said it was contacted about the meeting less than a half hour beforehand. KDKA-TV was never alerted. In reaching out to the board and county solicitor, they said everything is to be addressed on Thursday during their meeting and vote.
As for handling the attack, experts say it's best to not pay the extortionists. It could embolden them.
"There's no assurance that you're not going to be attacked again. You could be paying a ransom to a sanctioned entity," Hickton said.
Thursday's meeting is at 10 a.m.