Jefferson County Clerk's office working to restore systems after ransomware attack

System outages have been affecting the County Clerk locations since Monday evening. Eight branches across Louisville were forced to close temporarily.

Those system outages followed a ransomware attack, but no personal information was compromised, said Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw.

A ransomware attack is when hackers demand payment after installing malicious software onto computer systems.

Holsclaw said the office stores information on dedicated servers, not on its own computers.

“We have over 300 computers here that we’re dealing with, and each one of those have to be brought up individually to make sure that they’re clean. That’s what’s taking so long,” she said Wednesday.

The closures are delaying people who need vehicle registrations, housing deeds, marriage and notary licenses.

Holsclaw said they hope to reopen clerk’s office branches soon.

“I hope people know and have patience with us and I know that work can sometimes get stretched a little bit, but we're doing everything possible to get this back up so we can serve people like we want to,” she said.

Holsclaw said she did not know which location would reopen first.