Chatham County, N.C., Systems ‘Inoperable’ After Cyberattack

(TNS) — An unidentified “cyber incident” breached Chatham County’s communication systems Wednesday, County Manager Dan LaMontagne said.

The attack rendered the government’s network, email and phone lines “inoperable for an undetermined amount of time,” LaMontagne said in an email to The News & Observer.

“We are working with law enforcement and support agencies so we can recover from this incident as soon as possible. Our priority is to restore our systems in a secure manner and maintain the provision of critical services,” he said.

The incident did not affect the county’s early voting or 911 communications, he said.

When asked for details about what happened and how the system was breached, public information officer Kara Dudley said the county is “still evaluating the impact.”

Chatham County has not identified who was behind the incident.

“Departments are developing plans to deliver non-critical services. We will provide updates as they become available,” Dudley said in an email.

Fears of foreign influence

A recent Elon University poll of 1,259 North Carolina voters found “more than 40% have little to no confidence that the election’s outcome will escape the influence of foreign governments,” according to a news release.

The Russian government has led cyber attacks on state and local governments across the United States in the days leading up the Nov. 3 election, Politico reported Oct. 22.

Cyber security across the Triangle

The city of Durham and Durham County suffered a malware attack in March, The N&O has reported.

The virus was a type of ransomware, called Ryuk, known to attack local governments and demand large payments in return.

Since March’s malware attack, Durham County has made changes to its computer and security system, chief information officer Greg Marrow told county leaders Oct. 12.

The county implemented a two-factor authentication process for…