Fremont County, Colo., in ‘Recovery Phase’ After Cyber Attack

(TNS) — Now going into the seventh week of mitigation and restoration, Fremont County government is now in a recovery phase from the Aug. 17 BlackCat ransomware cyber attack.

An extension of a declaration of a local disaster due to the cybersecurity attack expired Tuesday, and the Fremont County Board of Commissioners has no plans to renew it.

Many departments are back up and fully functional, but others are still in the works. Every computer has had to be shipped out to be scrubbed and then have software re-downloaded.

County Manager Sunny Bryant gave a heartfelt thanks to the county’s IT team who has worked tirelessly since Aug. 17 to restore these systems.

“They have worked long days, through weekends, and gone above and beyond to bring county services back up,” she said. “The last six weeks have been emotional, mentally exhausting and physically exhausting.”

But the IT team showed up day after day, she said, with positive attitudes and dedication.

“All county services were affected by the attack,” Bryant said. “I appreciate the public’s support as we work through this and the patience as services were and continue to be restored.”

Board Chair Debbie Bell said the IT staff put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears over the last six weeks.

“Everyone took this attack very, very personally,” she said. “There is truly nothing personal about it, but it felt personal, even to us.”

She also recognized all of the county staff, department heads, elected officials and Emergency Management for their work during the mitigation process and for continuing to conduct business the best they could without computers.

“Thank you to all of our residents for being graceful and gracious and for being patient with us,” Bell said. “This was not an easy thing for any of us, but we are recovering.”

Fremont County Clerk and Recorder Justin Grantham said Election Department is fully functional and ballots will go out in the mail Oct. 10 for the Nov. 8 election.

The Department of Motor Vehicle also is up and running and Grantham hopes to have the Recording Division’s online database up and running soon. Also still in the process of fully being…