The attack on Cleveland Municipal Court was claimed on Tuesday by the Qilin ransomware gang — a group responsible for other recent attacks on local governments, as well as critical healthcare entities in the U.K. The court did not respond to requests for comment. Strafford County, home to 133,000 people, has been dealing with communication system outages for more than three days, according to local news outlet Foster's Daily Democrat. So far this year, the company’s researchers “have logged nine confirmed ransomware attacks on U.S. government entities at federal, state, and local levels,” Comparitech’s Paul Bischoff told Recorded Future News. Three other U.S. municipalities are currently dealing with cyberattacks, including Strafford County and Pelham School District in New Hampshire, as well as Connecticut’s Derby Police Department. A prosecutor working on an attempted murder trial in Strafford County Superior Court called the cyberattack “debilitating” and said it took down all of the county’s electronic communications system. The county did not respond to requests for comment but Strafford County Commissioner Chair George Maglaras told the newspaper that they are “experiencing a network disruption” and would update the public at a later date. About an hour away from Strafford County, the Pelham School District warned parents on Monday it is still facing technological issues caused by a cyberattack. The attack was discovered on Saturday, according to officials, when a local nursing home was unable to log in to county systems that hold medical data. Nearly three weeks after announcing a cyberattack had brought down its systems, Cleveland’s Municipal Court still has not recovered, hampering dozens of trials that had been slated to begin in March. A court employee told local news outlet ABC5 that workers do not have internet access and are forced to do many tasks by hand. Kansas’ Atchison County said its offices are closed on Tuesday after it detected and responded to a cyber incident that impacted its computer network. Cyberattacks on public entities across the U.S. — from police stations to school districts and courts — are causing wide-ranging issues for thousands of residents and public employees. “As soon as we learned this, we began working to investigate and determine the effects of the incident,” county officials said on social media. Researchers at Comparitech published a report on Tuesday highlighting the growth in ransomware attacks on U.S. government organizations, which have doubled in recent years.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Tue, 18 Mar 2025 19:00:12 +0000