After cyber-attack on Jefferson County Clerk, Fayette counterpart discusses precautions

Fayette County Clerk Susan Lamb said when she learned of the cyber-attack that virtually shut down the office of her Jefferson County counterpart last week, she offered to help.

“We were actually at the county clerk's association conference when we got this message, and so I immediately went over to clerk Holsclaw and told her that if there's anything that Fayette County can do, we'd be most happy to help them in whatever way we can.”

Lamb said Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw chose to rely on assistance from the state Transportation Department and other county clerks in the area. She said since the middle of last year, her office has been consulting with the Department of Homeland Security and state agencies about how to ward off ransomware and other cyber-attacks.

“We've been going through some tabletop exercises, you know, we are aware of processes that we can make sure that we have in place with our structure to recognize if there is something gonna happen.”

Still, Lamb said the possibility of a similar attack on her office is worrisome, in part because in most cyber-attacks, victims don’t know they’ve been infiltrated until it’s too late.

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