Garfield County in Utah hit with ransomware attack; paid the ransom to restore its files

• The ransomware attack encrypted all the files including the files belonging to the Assessor's Office and the Recorder's Office.
• Garfield County paid the ransom amount in bitcoin to get access to its files and systems and successfully restored access in March.

What is the issue - Garfield County officials confirmed that the County’s computer systems were infected with ransomware forcing the County to shut down its systems for weeks

Why it matters - The County has paid the ransom amount to restore its encrypted files.

What happened - The ransomware that infected the County’s computer systems was distributed via phishing emails. The phishing emails sent to the County’s employees were opened by someone which led to the ransomware being installed on the systems.

The big picture

• The ransomware attack encrypted all the files including the files belonging to the Assessor's Office and the Recorder's Office.
• However, the courts, elections and sheriff's office were not impacted by the ransomware attack.

“All of our data had been taken,” Garfield County Attorney Barry Huntington said, Fox13 reported.

“We were told to leave our computers off while the FBI and the state looked into it. We tried to do the best we could with handwritten files and things like that. Computer-wise, we were shut down,” Huntington added.

The bottom line - Garfield County paid the ransom amount in bitcoin to get access to its files and systems and successfully restored access in March.