LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Jefferson County Clerk’s Office gave a firsthand look at a ransom note sent to their office in a cyberattack that shut down all branches for multiple days in July.
The JCCO said it believes it was a random bot attack sent across the web, and it may have been a result of hackers taking advantage of the earlier CrowdStrike global IT outage.
In the note, the hackers offered to restore all the offices’ systems in exchange for an undisclosed amount of money and only if the JCCO didn’t inform anyone of the attack.
The note read in part, “...There will be no bad news for your company after successful negotiations for both sides. But there will be plenty of bad news if case of failed negotiations..."
The JCCO said it never contacted the hackers about negotiating a ransom and no data was breached or compromised in the hack.
Representatives for the office will be in Frankfort next week, answering questions from lawmakers about the investigation.
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