About 6 a.m. Monday, Jan. 24, Linn County discovered that a number of its computers were infected with ransomware.
Linn County’s IT Department shut down all affected computer systems immediately to minimize spreading of the ransomware.
Ransomware is a type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim’s personal data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid.
As of Monday evening, Linn County’s website is down and several systems are offline, affecting the county’s ability to provide services to the public.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office and the Health Services Department are not affected by this incident. However, some Health Services systems have been shut down as a precaution.
Individual Linn County departments can be contacted via telephone.
County officials are consulting with state, federal and private resources to respond to the incident as quickly as possible and get systems back online.
At this time, there is no evidence that any public or employee personal data has been compromised.
Additional information will be provided when available.
– Alex Paul, Linn County Communications Officer