Ransomware impacts Ohio county’s emergency services

Ohio's Wood County had numerous of its public safety departments' operations interrupted by a ransomware attack on the morning of Dec. 9, reports StateScoop.

While Wood County's fire and emergency services have been unaffected by the incident, the compromise of the county's record management system has forced its emergency dispatchers to use pen and paper to record incoming messages, according to Wood County Emergency Management Agency Director Jeff Klein. "The service to the citizens not really impacted. The way the internal people, the employees, and the staff go about accomplishing their jobs has been impacted. But [it's] varied kind of throughout the county as to what level of disruption," said Klein. Additional details regarding the incident continue to be uncertain amid an ongoing investigation by Wood County's IT department alongside the FBI and external cybersecurity experts. Such an incident comes after the state's City of Columbus was targeted in a July ransomware attack pegged to have cost millions.