A large suburb outside of Dallas, Texas, was one of multiple municipalities across the U.S. this week to report cyber incidents affecting public services.
Kaufman County, home to nearly 200,000 people, said a cyberattack was discovered on Monday and forced county officials to notify state and federal agencies.
The incident took down several county systems but the Sheriff’s Office and emergency services were not impacted. A local news outlet reported that computers at the county courthouse were affected by the attack.
“Our priority remains the continuity of essential public services and the protection of County systems and information,” Kaufman County Judge Jakie Allen said in a statement.
County representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
The attack on Kaufman County coincides with a handful of similar incidents across the country.
On Friday, the Tennessee city of La Vergne said on Friday it is investigating a network incident that disrupted computer systems used by government officials. The FBI and state agencies are working with the city to recover from the attack.
City offices have been closed since the cyberattack was discovered.
In an update on Tuesday, city officials explained that the system used to pay water bills and property taxes was taken down by the cyberattack, forcing the city’s more than 40,000 residents to pay through check or money order. Cash and credit card payments will not be accepted.
The city pledged that no late fees will be levied and water services will not be shut off while they deal with the outages.
At the municipal court, hearings scheduled for Wednesday were postponed due to the cyberattack.
Indiana’s Dekalb County and the library system of Chester County, Pennsylvania, both reported outages and cyberattacks in the last month as well.
Local governments have struggled with cyberattacks as federal resources for cash-strapped cyber defense agencies have either lapsed or been limited by the ongoing government shutdown. Last month, federal cybersecurity agencies ended their partnership with the Center for Internet Security (CIS), which provided critical threat information to city, county and state agencies.
Another key federal law governing the sharing of cyber threat intelligence also lapsed on September 30, leaving many government agencies scrambling to find alternative sources of critical cybersecurity information.
Furloughs, budget cuts and downsizing at federal departments during the government shutdown have also hampered efforts by key agencies to provide assistance to local governments dealing with cybersecurity incidents.
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Jonathan Greig
is a Breaking News Reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since 2014. Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia. He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.
