(TNS) – The Tarrant Appraisal District's website was down for several hours Thursday due to a “network outage,” and officials said the district was working with leading independent cybersecurity experts to assess the issue. spoke. dallas morning news.
Tarrant Chief Appraiser Joe Don Bobbitt said in a statement Thursday afternoon that his office does not believe sensitive data was affected by the incident.
“Our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” he said. “However, we have no reason to believe that confidential information is involved at this time. If that decision changes, we will take appropriate steps to notify those involved.”
Bobbitt said the district became aware of the “network outage” on Thursday and began an investigation. It is unclear what caused the confusion. The school district did not say whether it reported the incident to law enforcement. Attempts to contact the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office prior to publication did not result in a response.
At 11:56 a.m., the website's home page simply said “hello world.” By 2pm, the website was back up and working. IT staff was able to identify the problem with his website and restore it. Staff are working to restore access to phones and email. Bobbitt said district offices are still open on a limited basis, but the assessment software is not yet online.
“TAD has invested significant time and resources into our systems and practices to adequately protect our networks and data. An investigation is underway,” he said.
The district launched its new website last week after a database error caused the old site to crash.Bobbitt said: Fort Worth Star Telegram Last week, the school district announced it had hired a third party to investigate the possible breach of taxpayer information.
The district was hit by a cyber attack in 2022, but an investigation revealed that no taxpayer information had been compromised.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that ransomware incidents are on the rise in 2023, with more than 2,825 complaints reported. This is an 18% increase from 2022. Reported losses increased 74% from $34.3 million to $59.6 million.
Several businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have been affected by recent data security breaches.
Earlier this month, information including medical information, health insurance information, addresses, and dates of birth was leaked at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, affecting approximately 2,100 people.
In October, hackers from the cybercrime group Prey gained access to Dallas County networks. While county cybersecurity detected and expelled the hacker; [out] Before shutting down the system, the group was able to steal data, primarily criminal case information accessible through public records requests, and post it on the dark web.
Last year, hackers from the group Royal targeted the city of Dallas in a data breach that affected more than 30,000 people. In August, the City Council voted to set aside $8.6 million to pay vendors for hardware, software, incident response and consulting services in response to ransomware attacks.
The Tarrant Appraisal District is responsible for managing property tax assessments and exemptions in Tarrant County.
“At this time, we have limited information we can provide,” Bobbitt said. “We understand that it may be frustrating not to have all the facts right away, but we need time to work with the expert teams we have engaged to resolve this issue. .”
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