Guadalupe County investigating potential network breach
Guadalupe County investigating potential network breach
Dalondo Moultrie The Seguin Gazette Jun 13, 2022 Updated Jun 14, 2022
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A data security incident has Guadalupe County officials on high alert and working together and with outside agencies to determine risk factors for county employees and residents.
County information technology leaders learned about the incident early Saturday and quickly moved the county into defense mode, County Judge Kyle Kutscher said Monday. The county and a special team of forensic specialists were determining the extent of the incident and working to prevent further exposure, he said.
“We are working with third-party forensic investigators and law enforcement agencies to find out possibly who did this and what we do moving forward, what files are safe, what potentially can be further issues and how we mitigate and remedy the issues,” Kutscher said. “We’ve been talking with these folks because they live in this world. They say a breach is when somebody gets information and obtains it. Ransomware is when people have all your stuff and want you to pay a ransom. We haven’t found anything of them having information or wanting anything as a group. We’re trying to go through the files and information and find that out.”
On Saturday, the county became aware of a network disruption impacting operations, Guadalupe County Emergency Management Coordinator Patrick Pinder said in a new release on Monday. Experts were investigating what happened and determining how bad it was, he said.
Because privacy and security are important, once the issue was discovered, county officials immediately began investigating.
“Our internal teams are working closely with industry-leading forensic experts to investigate and remediate the issue,” Pinder said. “Safeguarding and maintaining the confidentiality of our constituent and employee information remains our utmost priority.”
The Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Management and information technology crews are helping with the investigation, Kutscher said. They notified the Texas Secretary of State’s office, the state’s office of court administration, the Department of Information Resources and other law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal level to help, the judge said.
“We have all these outside resources,” he said. “We have local law enforcement and higher all involved.”
The issue began when county email services were not functioning properly, Kutscher said. Guadalupe County has safety precautions built into its systems that ceases operations when abnormalities are detected, he said.
Those precautions took place late Friday night and IT received notice that something was amiss before 6 a.m. Saturday, Kutscher said.
In the meantime, county department heads were made aware of the issues and more information is expected to be supplied if sensitive data has been compromised, Kutscher said.
“We do take privacy and security of the data in our systems very seriously,” he said. “We’re doing our best to protect the information of the public and our employees. If we do find out at any point that personally identifying information has been obtained by anybody, there are requirements in place that we would notify those affected.”
As of Monday evening, the county had discovered no evidence that any personal identifying information had been accessed or acquired.
While things are being investigated, most of the county’s email addresses are being taken offline, Kutscher said. But a secure email address is in place for people in the public who have questions, he said.
Send those questions to [email protected] , the county judge said.
Some individual departments within county government could set up other email addresses to answer department-specific questions, Kutscher said. If that happens, he will compile a list and provide the community with those addresses, the judge said.
“People may be concerned when they read this information but, again, we know and are committed to making sure everything is safe,” Kutscher said. “But, if we do find out at any point that personal information has been obtained, we will notify the community and the media about that as soon as possible.”
Dalondo Moultrie The Seguin Gazette Jun 13, 2022 Updated Jun 14, 2022
Guadalupe County Courthouse
Guadalupe County Courthouse
PrintCopy article link
Save
A data security incident has Guadalupe County officials on high alert and working together and with outside agencies to determine risk factors for county employees and residents.
County information technology leaders learned about the incident early Saturday and quickly moved the county into defense mode, County Judge Kyle Kutscher said Monday. The county and a special team of forensic specialists were determining the extent of the incident and working to prevent further exposure, he said.
“We are working with third-party forensic investigators and law enforcement agencies to find out possibly who did this and what we do moving forward, what files are safe, what potentially can be further issues and how we mitigate and remedy the issues,” Kutscher said. “We’ve been talking with these folks because they live in this world. They say a breach is when somebody gets information and obtains it. Ransomware is when people have all your stuff and want you to pay a ransom. We haven’t found anything of them having information or wanting anything as a group. We’re trying to go through the files and information and find that out.”
On Saturday, the county became aware of a network disruption impacting operations, Guadalupe County Emergency Management Coordinator Patrick Pinder said in a new release on Monday. Experts were investigating what happened and determining how bad it was, he said.
Because privacy and security are important, once the issue was discovered, county officials immediately began investigating.
“Our internal teams are working closely with industry-leading forensic experts to investigate and remediate the issue,” Pinder said. “Safeguarding and maintaining the confidentiality of our constituent and employee information remains our utmost priority.”
The Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Management and information technology crews are helping with the investigation, Kutscher said. They notified the Texas Secretary of State’s office, the state’s office of court administration, the Department of Information Resources and other law enforcement agencies at the local, state and federal level to help, the judge said.
“We have all these outside resources,” he said. “We have local law enforcement and higher all involved.”
The issue began when county email services were not functioning properly, Kutscher said. Guadalupe County has safety precautions built into its systems that ceases operations when abnormalities are detected, he said.
Those precautions took place late Friday night and IT received notice that something was amiss before 6 a.m. Saturday, Kutscher said.
In the meantime, county department heads were made aware of the issues and more information is expected to be supplied if sensitive data has been compromised, Kutscher said.
“We do take privacy and security of the data in our systems very seriously,” he said. “We’re doing our best to protect the information of the public and our employees. If we do find out at any point that personally identifying information has been obtained by anybody, there are requirements in place that we would notify those affected.”
As of Monday evening, the county had discovered no evidence that any personal identifying information had been accessed or acquired.
While things are being investigated, most of the county’s email addresses are being taken offline, Kutscher said. But a secure email address is in place for people in the public who have questions, he said.
Send those questions to [email protected] , the county judge said.
Some individual departments within county government could set up other email addresses to answer department-specific questions, Kutscher said. If that happens, he will compile a list and provide the community with those addresses, the judge said.
“People may be concerned when they read this information but, again, we know and are committed to making sure everything is safe,” Kutscher said. “But, if we do find out at any point that personal information has been obtained, we will notify the community and the media about that as soon as possible.”
