Cyberattack shuts down Washington County's main computer server
WASHINGTON, Pa. (KDKA) — The daily functions of county government have been shut down in Washington County.
A cyberattack shut down the county's main computer server. Hackers hit Washington County this week, and the cyberattack means a lot of people are walking away from the courthouse confused.
Cody Polfus-Banaszak came down to finally get his record expunged, a big day that needs to happen another day.
"It slowed down my day quite a bit," he said. "But it's OK. I'll come back another day."
Washington County Commissioner Nick Sherman learned about the cyberattack on Wednesday. He says his IT workers alerted him to a phishing scheme and shut everything down. Now, Homeland Security is investigating.
"It's been a massive inconvenience," Sherman said. "But again, when you're looking at information that can shared on the web, it's important that you're doing the best you can to protect not only the county employees but everyone that does business with the county."
All county activity linked to the main computer server is on hold. No one can access county email or file documents electronically.
Sherman said the county is trying its best.
"Court operations are still functional," he said. "They are antiquated because we are writing things down that we would normally be typing into a computer."
An inconvenience, but a necessity as investigators try to find out who did this. No timeline yet for when things will come back online.
Sherman said they had additional firewalls that protected the 911 call center and the emergency management, so they are still up and running.
