Service in one U.S. county is paralyzed: a suspected ransomware attack

A cyberattack left a prison in the Albuquerque area unable to access cameras, access databases or open automatic doors.

A suspected ransomware attack in the U.S. state of New Mexico has crippled services throughout the county, including a local prison. Disturbingly, the prison has no access to cameras, access to prison databases or open automatic doors.

Bernalio County is the most populous county in the state, including its largest city, Albuquerque. Last week, a cyberattack left the entire county government in trouble, and the county was thrown into chaos. The attack, which took place on Jan. 5, forced county offices to shut down, put databases in jeopardy, and caused major problems in all the work of processing local real estate transactions to marriage licenses, all of which relied on the county's network.

Officials issued a statement shortly after the attack, saying: "Most county buildings are closed and closed to the public. However, county employees work remotely and will help the public as much as possible, depending on the situation. The vendor of the county system has been notified and is working to resolve the issue and restore system functionality. ”

Most notably, the county's Metropolitan Detention Center doesn't have access to some critical security features — including cameras and automatic prison doors. This forced the county to lock off entire prisons, forcing all inmates into their respective cells for the foreseeable future, a move that was clearly motivated by security concerns.

The Verge, a U.S. tech blog site, reports that the blockade also sparked a minor uproar in the judiciary as a result of which the county may have violated the terms of a 1995 lawsuit over prison conditions. That settlement stipulated that prisoners should be given certain privileges, such as guaranteeing time to let out the wind outside the cell and the use of communication devices such as telephones. In the current circumstances, some of these privileges cannot be met; as a result, the county was forced to file an emergency notice with federal court last week asking it to consider its apparent "emergency" situation.

Finally, the cyberattack also reduced important prison databases (which may have been corrupted), including its incident tracking database, which records all violent incidents in prisons, including sexual assaults and fights.

It's unclear when this whole mess will be cleaned up, but one thing is certain: It's another sign that ransomware gangs are extremely repulsive — we need the federal government to somehow put in more effective protections against them.