Tarrant Appraisal District gives update on last month's ransomware attack
FORT WORTH — An investigation found the personal information of less than 300 property owners was put at risk by a ransomware attack last month, according to board members at the Tarrant Appraisal District.
Discussions are ongoing with the Medusa ransomware group involved, according to board chair Vince Puente, as is a criminal investigation.
Phone lines at the district are operational though now, and while key functions of the website are still not available, Puente said the board was optimistic the district would be resuming normal operations "shortly."
The update Wednesday came at the end of three straight days of board members meeting privately about the attack which happened nearly two weeks ago.
TAD said at the time the ransomware group sent a letter demanding $700,000 to prevent the release of sensitive information.
The agency is reaching out directly to the people impacted. Wednesday night TAD posted additional information on its website for the general public on how to protect personal information and watch for signs of fraud.
TAD does not expect the incident to cause any delays in sending out annual value notifications for properties, which usually go out in mid-April, or the start of valuation protests. Last year the deadline to protest was extended for Tarrant County owners, because of problems with the TAD website. Later in the year, the district revealed at least two pieces of malware had been installed onto its system. However, in December the district said there was no evidence any property owner information had been compromised.
Asked Wednesday if the current attack was directly connected to the previous incident, Puente responded that it appeared to be a new intrusion, but was the result of the "history of where we've been."
New chief appraiser Joe Don Bobbitt, said image files at the district were not impacted, and they were in the process of restoring systems on employee laptops. He was optimistic operations would return to normal within the next few weeks.
New board member Alan Blaylock, who has a background working in software and tech, said it was clear significant investments would be needed at TAD to ensure the safety of data.
The board committed last month to spend about $200,000 initially for immediate software upgrades and IT support consultants.