Fulton County faces ransomware attack by ‘financially motivated actors,’ but county elections still on track

Officials in Georgia’s Fulton County, which includes parts of Atlanta, said Wednesday that “financially motivated” hackers appeared to be behind a ransomware attack that has disrupted key county services for weeks.

Officials in Georgia’s Fulton County, which includes parts of Atlanta, said Wednesday that “financially motivated” hackers appeared to be behind a ransomware attack that has disrupted key county services for weeks. “Early today, we became aware that cybercriminals claiming responsibility for this incident listed Fulton County as a victim on their dark website and posted screen shots of information claimed to have been accessed,” Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts said at a press conference. The revelation comes nearly two and half weeks after the county first acknowledged a “cybersecurity incident” was causing disruptions throughout county systems. Hours before Pitts’ comments, a notorious, multinational cybercrime group claimed responsibility for the hack and posted online what appeared to be internal Fulton County documents, including a police report and a retirement statement. Cybercriminal groups often publicly list victims in an attempt to pressure them into paying a ransom to recover their data. The leak will only up the stakes for Fulton County to get a handle on a cyberattack that has hobbled services for weeks. The group that claimed Fulton County as a victim is a prolific group known as LockBit. Their malware was used in ransomware attacks on hundreds of victims the first half of last year alone — more than any other group, according to cybersecurity researchers. Pitts said the county is working with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts on the investigation and to assess the validity of the hackers’ claims. It’s unclear if there has been any communication between Fulton County and the hackers. Pitts declined to take questions, citing an investigation was ongoing.