911 and 311 call centers are operational but County Executive Steuart Pittman said many other services are impacted by the shutoff of internet access — an action taken to “ensure the safety” of government systems. Anne Arundel County, home to nearly 600,000 people and the state capital of Annapolis, first announced the incident on February 23 and as of Monday is warning residents that multiple services are still down. “County officials are working diligently with the Anne Arundel County Office of Information Technology, public safety officials, cybersecurity specialists, and each department to conduct a full investigation,” he said. Local news outlets in Maine spoke to officials in Franklin County who said they dealt with a ransomware attack early last month. The attack on Anne Arundel County took place as multiple state-level government bodies dealt with cyberattacks having real-world impacts. Pittman explained that due to an ongoing investigation, a full list of affected services could not be provided but residents concerned about water or tax bills could call the office of finance at a provided number. Missouri’s Department of Conservation is facing outages from a cyberattack announced on Friday and municipal courts in Cleveland, Ohio were shut down due to an incident last week. When asked for comment, county officials declined to say whether it is a ransomware attack or if the group behind the attack has identified itself. County buildings were closed last Monday as a result of the cyberattack and employees were asked to work from home. “As a precautionary measure, the Court has shut down the affected systems while we focus on securing and restoring services safely. These systems will remain offline until we have a better understanding of the situation,” court officials wrote on social media, warning that housing court was also shut down. There is no timeline for the restoration of services but there is a “priority order” state officials are using to bring systems back online. All county recycling centers and its landfill were closed as well, but public schools and libraries were not affected. Government services offered by one of the largest counties in Maryland are still being limited more than a week after it was targeted by a cyberattack.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Mon, 03 Mar 2025 17:10:07 +0000