Texas county issues disaster declaration following cyberattack

A Texas county government that serves about 40,000 residents is suffering from a cyberattack that forced officials to declare a disaster over the weekend.

On Friday, Matagorda County’s Emergency Operation Center published a statement warning that a cybersecurity breach had been discovered “involving a virus that has affected several internal systems.” Matagorda County Judge Bobby Seiferman issued a declaration of disaster based on the security breach. 

“We are taking this incident very seriously and are working around the clock with cybersecurity professionals to fully secure our systems and ensure the protection of sensitive information,” Seiferman said. “We understand the inconvenience this may cause and are committed to providing transparent updates as we continue to work through this challenge.” 

Officials said the breach appears to have been contained to internal county systems, with assistance from cybersecurity experts, the Department of Public Safety Cybersecurity Division, the Texas Department of Emergency Management and the Department of Informational Services. The FBI has also been notified of the incident. 

Home to more than 37,000 residents, the county is about an hour and a half away from Houston. The cyberattack was discovered on Friday morning and has been sourced back to an “unauthorized access point, impacting various departments and disrupting some operations.”

In an update on Sunday, the county said it made progress in restoring some online services. The county placed drop boxes near the Matagorda County tax office for tax payments due at the end of January. 

In-person payments at government offices cannot be conducted, but residents can mail in checks. Emergency services were not impacted by the incident.

The county is still investigating the cause of the disruption, and no hacking group has publicly taken credit for the incident. 

Several other municipalities have been forced to declare disasters in response to cyberattacks and ransomware incidents, including a county in Indiana and a city in California. 

The disaster declaration came on the same day that another major Texas institution — the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center — reported that more than 530,000 people had information stolen during a ransomware attack last fall. 

The organization previously said troves of names, Social Security numbers, healthcare info and more were stolen by hackers during the incident. A ransomware gang named Interlock took credit for the attack.