KANSAS CITY, Mo. — More questions remain after a ransomware attack disrupted Jackson County's systems earlier this week.
The Office of Deed Appraisal, Collection and Records has been closed since Tuesday and will remain closed for the remainder of this week.
The KSHB 41 I-Team spoke with cybersecurity experts Wednesday to gain insight into the ransomware attack on county systems.
James Turgal, a vice president at cybersecurity firm Optiv, told the I-Team that there may be a connection to why the incident happened on Election Day, based on what he has seen so far.
Jackson County's tax, online property, marriage license and inmate search systems were affected.
At this time, the county said there is no evidence that data was compromised.
In response, Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. declared a state of emergency in advance of the attack. He said the damage was limited due to the county's IT response.
So far, the county has not said there is a connection between the ransomware attack and Election Day.
Turgal, who worked for the FBI for more than 20 years, told the I-Team there is no such thing as a cyber coincidence.
“If an attacker tries to break into the election part or the election technology and they're not able to do that, the next best thing is to disrupt the county's services,” Turgal said.
The county said it does not store customers' financial information on its systems. It is processed and protected by a third party company.
The I-Team is trying to find out from the county what caused the ransomware attack, whether the county paid the ransom and how long it will take for the system to recover and come back online.
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