South Carolina County Rebuilds Network After Denying Hacker Ransom Demand

A South Carolina county continues to rebuild its computer network after what it called a sophisticated hacking attempt.

Hackers sent an email Jan. 22 that allowed them to take over Georgetown County’s computers. They demanded a ransom to return the system to the county’s control, spokeswoman Jackie Broach said.

The county did not pay the ransom and has been working for the past month to restore email and the network and clean infected computers, Broach said in a statement.

The cyber security experts hired by the county said there is no indication that tax, employment or other private information was obtained by the hackers, Broach said.

Email on county addresses is back up for about half of Georgetown County’s employees, with technology workers putting a priority on addresses used by the public, Broach said.

Authorities are investigating the breach and aren’t releasing information on the hackers.

The cyber security experts told the county the attack was sophisticated, getting into the system through “something most people would have mistaken for being a legitimate email,” Broach said.