OTTAWA COUNTY, Ohio — Update: On March 28, Ottawa County officials said they completed a review of the affected county data while "working with a leading cybersecurity firm" and found no personally identifiable information. Anyone possibly impacted will receive notice, the county said in a press release, and that the investigation is ongoing.
Ottawa County officials said they are making progress toward restoration after detecting a ransomware attack on their computer network.
In a statement issued Thursday morning, officials with the Ottawa County Commissioners' office said the county IT department and "nationally recognized" third-party cybersecurity consultants were working to restore operations, recover impacted systems and determine the effects of the incident. They also said they have notified law enforcement.
According to officials, restoration efforts have allowed essential services to continue operations while teams continue network recovery.
An unauthorized party has also released county-related information supposedly acquired from the compromised network, authorities said. With law enforcement assistance, they said they plan to complete thorough analyses of the data to determine what and whose information was potentially involved.
County commissioners emphasized their dedication to network restoration and resident and employee safety. They also thanked the community for their patience and support and promised to provide updates as they become available.
Jong Kwan Lee, an assistant professor and chair of computer science at Bowling Green State University, said cyberattacks have become increasingly common.
"Industry, government sectors, even the education sector, like universities are hacked," Lee said.
He said the severity of the ransomware attack depends on what information Ottawa County has stored in its system.
"It could be as bad as social security numbers, phone numbers, every basically in their database. Or it could just be the names and addresses,"Lee said.
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