Clay County, Indiana, website, services remain offline after ransomware attack

Fourteen of 17 functions in Clay County, Indiana, including its website, remained closed Monday, following a July 9 ransomware attack that took down its courthouse and health department.

Officials in Clay, a county of 26,000 residents about 60 miles west of Indianapolis, filed a local disaster declaration two days after the cyberattack that permits the county to redirect financial resources to the departments affected by the incident and accelerate the restoration process. The disaster declaration will be in effect until Thursday.

“We, the Clay County Board of Commissioners, declare that a local disaster emergency exists in the county and that we hereby invoke and declare those portions of the Indiana Code which are applicable to the conditions and have caused the issuance of this proclamation, to be in full force and effect in the county for the exercise of all necessary emergency authority for protection of the lives and property of the lives and property of the people of Clay County and the restoration of the local government with a minimum of interruption,” the Clay County Emergency Management Agency wrote in a Facebook post last Thursday.

Clay County officials said they discovered “unauthorized activity” around midnight on July 9 and later confirmed the county had been hit with a ransomware attack that resulted in a “significant disruption in services.”

“Upon discovering the attack, county officials immediately took mitigation efforts to prevent further damage and protect sensitive data,” the release read. “We are working closely with leading cybersecurity experts and federal authorities to resolve the situation and ensure the security of our digital infrastructure.”

County commissioners said all offices at the Clay County Courthouse will remain closed during the recovery process, which includes all legal proceedings and services at the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office and both Circuit and Superior Courts.