‘Sophisticated cyberattack’ hits Clark County network, investigators confirm

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Clark County investigators confirmed Friday that a “sophisticated cyberattack” struck the county government’s network last month, delaying voter registration and taking down parts of the county’s website.

Investigators found no indication employee or resident information was compromised, the county said in a statement Friday.

Clark County hired cybersecurity specialists to investigate after information technology employees detected suspicious activity on the network on Oct. 21. The cybersecurity investigators are still determining the “nature and scope” of the attack, but the website and network have both been restored and are secure, the county said.

Some employees’ computers may still not be working as of Friday, according to the county’s website. The county did not say why the computers weren’t working.

The attack caused delays in the elections office’s processing of voter registration updates and took down the website’s property information center and geographic information services. Ballot tabulation and scanning were not affected, the county said.

“Clark County takes the security of our network and data very seriously,” said county manager Kathleen Otto. “As soon as we discovered the suspicious activity, we took steps to confirm the security of the county network and launched an investigation.”

-- Catalina Gaitán, cgaitan@oregonian.com, @catalinagaitan_

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