Majority of Fremont County government services are back up and running after cyber hack

FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- On August 17, Fremont County government leaders realized the county's computer systems had been hacked. For weeks, residents went without access to many government resources. While some items are still inaccessible, officials say the majority of services are back.

The cyber security threat shut down many government resources, including the Department of Human Services, the Department of Public Health, and the Fremont County Administration Building. The administration building houses many services, including the county assessor, treasurer, coroner, veterans services, and planning and zoning.

In September, the Governor's Office of Information and Technology determined through an investigation that the cybersecurity attack resulted from BlackCat ransomware, also known as ALPHV.

Monday, Fremont County Commissioner Dwayne Mcfall confirmed that the majority of government services are back up and running. Mcfall said the health department and the administration building are open.

At this time, the only departments within the administration building that are still struggling are the treasures and assessors office.

"There's a few little things that aren't available in the treasurer's office where she's working with her foreclosures to be able to notify those folks. And then the assessor's department where she needs a little bit more data, where she can have the information available for the folks," said Mcfall.

According to McFall, government officials are still trying to catch up with everything following the attack.

"We're still going through the process. There are still some tweaks that are going to have to be made. Even though this stuff is up and running, it isn't finalized yet. So there are going to be some tweaks that have to be made to make sure that there are not some things missing, some parts of the software missing in order to be able to do day to day basis," said Mcfall.

While the county doesn't know the total cost of the cyber attack is going to cost yet, McFall said the insurance company is going to cover that cost. The county is also working on putting protections in place to make sure something like this does not happen again.

Nearly two months later, state officials still don't know who is behind the attack. According to Fremont County government officials, this is still an active investigation.

"We all hope they get caught. They're crooks; that's all they are. So we hope they get caught, and full prosecution by the law, whatever that may be. And maybe we can recoup some money from those guys as well if they do catch them and prosecute them," said Mcfall.

There is a chance some residents have had their personal information stolen. McFall said the insurance company is sending out notifications to people affected.

Fremont County's main website is still not up and running. But Mcfall said they're working on getting their old website back.

To access Fremont County's temporary website, click here.