LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It's been one week since the Jefferson County Clerk's Office revealed it was a victim of a cyberattack. Within the week, Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw said the attack came from a global company running a ransomware hub.
The attack forced all branches across Metro Louisville to cease operations. It wasn't until Friday evening that a few branches were able to reopen.
On Monday, Louisville residents were in and out of the door at the clerk's Dixie Highway branch. Each customer attempting to renew their vehicle's registration before it expires at the end of the month.
The Dixie Highway branch is one of the busiest locations for the agency, and it showed as many people were waiting to get services after the nearly a week long closure.
Customers filled every available seat waiting longer than usual to renew their car registration.
"I got here at 9:45 this morning and it took me about two hours," Ann Boehnlein, a Louisville resident renewing her vehicle's registration, said.
The clerk's office has been slowing transitioning back into their regular hours after staff stayed working on Saturday to help with the backlog of work.
"We're grateful that on Saturday we were able to serve almost 500 people," Ashley Tinius, director of communications for the clerk's office, said.
But even with an extra day of work the Dixie Highway branch still saw a major influx of customers.
"There are a lot of people in our lobby, but you know what? It's always busy on a Monday," Tinius said. "And it's always busy at the end of the month."
In order to help offset some frustrations surrounding counties like Oldham and Shelby took on dealership paperwork and offered services to customers with immediate needs.
"It's great that they were stepping up and they were allowing our customers to come in there, but we feel confident that by the middle of this week we'll be able to tell them they don't have to help out as much," Tinius said.
WHAS11 has continuously asked the clerk's office if they paid the ransom to get access back into their system.
"We are a tax payer funded agency," Tinius said. "So we cannot pay ransom and we did everything in our power to reopen as quickly as we could."
The clerk's office said personal information is safe and a forensic team made sure computers were cleared. Now, employees are able to get back into the office to catch up on backlog work and continue to offer services as fast as they can.
While all branches are open, it's important to know the clerk's office is unable to issue some government documents like marriage licenses and deeds. It's recommended to call the branch you plan to visit ahead of time to verify what services it can handle and if it's operating hours are different than usual.
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