Group behind Jefferson County Clerk's Office data breach claims county files stolen, officials say

The Jefferson County Clerk's Office is continuing to investigate the recent ransomware attack that shut down several branches over multiple days in July after confirming a data breach in Frankfort Wednesday.

Officials from the clerk's office appeared in front of the Investments in Information Technology Improvement & Modernization Projects Oversight Board after being contacted by the Multi-State Information and Sharing Analysis Center, affiliated with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, with details of a post made to Ransom Hub by "Russia-based cyber criminals" believed to be responsible for the attack.

David Summerfield, executive director for the Jefferson County Clerk's Office, said it was revealed Monday that the group "posted a message on their dark web blog claiming that they had successfully stolen County Clerk files, along with a purported list of those files." Organizations are currently working to confirm the claims.

Summerfield said the breach follows cyberattacks on larger organizations like AT&T and Ticketmaster , and the hackers, identified by U.S. federal law enforcement, were able to access the network through compromised credentials using a virtual private network. They were able to scan for sensitive, valuable information and encrypt the files, installing a ransom note on impacted devices.

"The hackers also tried to make it harder for us to recover our data by deleting the most recent set of backups, turning off services that help restore corrupted systems and deleting or encrypting the event logs that record the computer's activities," Summerfield said.

Officials said no employees of the Jefferson County Clerk's Office, including Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw, engaged in communications or negotiations with the hackers or looked at the group's ransom demand.

The breach remains under investigation.

Louisville: Jefferson County Clerk Jefferson County Clerk's Office remains closed. Update to come Friday

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Group behind Jefferson County Clerk's Office data breach claims county files stolen, officials say