Douglas County targeted as part of international cyber attack
Douglas County targeted as part of international cyber attack
World staff writer Mar 18, 2021
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EAST WENATCHEE — Douglas County’s servers were among thousands of servers targeted in a cyberattack by a group out of China.
It was an international attack that occurred March 2 and exploited a weakness in Microsoft servers, said Brad Hudson, Douglas County management information systems manager. The attack required Hudson to spend Friday through Sunday updating Douglas County’s servers. The county didn’t lose any data, but it took a lot of time to respond.
“It seems like the attacks are targeted toward any vulnerabilities right, and then they’re going to pick and choose who they really want to burrow in and mess with,” Hudson said.
The attacks came from a Chinese-sponsored actor called Hafnium, according to a Microsoft news release. The group usually targets groups in the United States, such as research labs, law firms, higher education institutes, defense contractors and others.
The attack that occurred a couple of weeks ago was international, though, according to the news release.
In January, Okanogan County experienced a cyberattack that compromised a large portion of its computer network, according to previous reporting. It caused all the county’s phone systems to stop working as well.
The two events are not related as far as Hudson can tell, but it does speak to the increase in cyberattacks overall, he said.
“This year it seems there are more hacks now than I have ever seen,” Hudson said. “I mean I’ve been in the IT industry for going on almost 24 years now and I’ve never seen this many.”
The number of attacks and the frequency of them happening seems to be increasing, and it is getting more and more difficult to stop all of them, he said.
World staff writer Mar 18, 2021
EAST WENATCHEE — Douglas County’s servers were among thousands of servers targeted in a cyberattack by a group out of China.
It was an international attack that occurred March 2 and exploited a weakness in Microsoft servers, said Brad Hudson, Douglas County management information systems manager. The attack required Hudson to spend Friday through Sunday updating Douglas County’s servers. The county didn’t lose any data, but it took a lot of time to respond.
“It seems like the attacks are targeted toward any vulnerabilities right, and then they’re going to pick and choose who they really want to burrow in and mess with,” Hudson said.
The attacks came from a Chinese-sponsored actor called Hafnium, according to a Microsoft news release. The group usually targets groups in the United States, such as research labs, law firms, higher education institutes, defense contractors and others.
The attack that occurred a couple of weeks ago was international, though, according to the news release.
In January, Okanogan County experienced a cyberattack that compromised a large portion of its computer network, according to previous reporting. It caused all the county’s phone systems to stop working as well.
The two events are not related as far as Hudson can tell, but it does speak to the increase in cyberattacks overall, he said.
“This year it seems there are more hacks now than I have ever seen,” Hudson said. “I mean I’ve been in the IT industry for going on almost 24 years now and I’ve never seen this many.”
The number of attacks and the frequency of them happening seems to be increasing, and it is getting more and more difficult to stop all of them, he said.
