{"id":196980,"date":"2026-03-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/county-computer-outage-blamed-on-cyber-security-act-official-says-news\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T08:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:10:11","slug":"county-computer-outage-blamed-on-cyber-security-act-official-says-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/county-computer-outage-blamed-on-cyber-security-act-official-says-news\/","title":{"rendered":"County computer outage blamed on cyber-security act, official says | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

County computer outage blamed on cyber-security act, official says | News<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.ladysmithnews.com\/news\/article_f7565903-42f3-451e-b5d3-00e082703864.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-18 08:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.ladysmithnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

For the second time in five months, computer systems at the Rusk County Government Center are down, with the outage being blamed this time on a cyber-security incident, according to a press release sent out by Administrative Coordinator Ashley Heath on March 11.\u00a0A similar outage occurred in November 2025, with systems at that time being down for approximately three days.\u00a0According to a press release sent out by Administrative Coordinator Ashley Heath, \u201cRusk County recently discovered a cybersecurity incident impacting its network environment. We are currently working with a team of forensic experts to fully understand the extent and implications of this incident and to restore operations within a safe and remediated network environment.\u201d Heath outlined steps they are taking, including the retainment of expert third-party forensic specialists, and the undertaking of a comprehensive assessment that may take several weeks, saying that they are sparing no effort to bring their systems back to seamless operation. \u201cRusk County remains fully committed to the protection of community and employee information, systems security, and data privacy. County departments remain open and staff are available to assist residents. Please be assured that we are sparing no effort to continue to allow us to provide the highest service to our community.\u201d
\n An email to media from Miranda Kron, Office Coordinator at the Rusk County Sheriff\u2019s Office, states that they are slowly getting their systems back up and running, and that their law enforcement systems are being rebuilt. Once rebuilt, the dispatch logs will be sent out as normal.\u00a0County officials emphasized that while they are not calling this incident a ransomware attack, the investigation is ongoing, and they will provide information to the public as it proceeds.\u00a0In general, a cyberattack is the process of attempting to steal data or gain unauthorized access to computers and networks using one or more computers. The goal of a cyberattack is to either disable the target computer and take it offline, or gain access to the computer\u2019s data and infiltrate connected networks and systems. Cyber criminals may launch both random and targeted attacks on business and governmental systems.\u00a0
\n Ransomware, according to the FBI\u2019s website, is a type of malicious software, also called malware, that encrypts a victim\u2019s files, systems, or data, rendering them inaccessible until a ransom is paid to the attackers. These attacks may involve extortion, where attackers threaten to publish stolen, sensitive data. Ransomware attacks can cause costly disruptions to operations and the loss of critical information and data.\u00a0Ransomware can unknowingly be downloaded onto a computer by the opening of an email attachment, clicking on an advertisement, following a link, or visiting a website that\u2019s embedded with malware. Once the code is loaded onto a computer, it can lock access to the computer itself or data and files stored there.\u00a0Most of the time, victims don\u2019t even know their computer is infected, discovering the problem when they can no longer access their data, or they see computer messages letting them know about the attack and demanding ransom payments.\u00a0A memo sent by Heath and Board Chair Phil Unterschuetz to county employees asked that they take proactive measures to prevent incursions to their computers and computer systems, including changing their passwords and signing up for two-factor authentication. Also, staff were told to not save or \u201ccache\u201d credentials on their devices, and to pay extra attention to banking and financial account activity.\u00a0Another suggestion is for employees to place a security freeze on their credit reports, which prohibits a credit reporting agency from releasing a consumer\u2019s credit report without written authorization, the downside of which can cause delays in loan processing, credit mortgages, employment, housing or other financial services.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

County computer outage blamed on cyber-security act, official says | News https:\/\/www.ladysmithnews.com\/news\/article_f7565903-42f3-451e-b5d3-00e082703864.html Publish Date: 2026-03-18…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com\/ladysmithnews.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/4\/cd\/4cd4e9d1-bc5a-47aa-8021-e52b09effb19\/69b9f1bbb2b6e.image.png?crop=387%2C387%2C98%2C0&resize=200%2C200&order=crop%2Cresize","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24,32],"class_list":["post-196980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity","tag-malware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196982,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196980\/revisions\/196982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}