Ohio county IT director resigns after $1.5 million ransomware payment
After suffering a ransomware attack last month, and then agreeing to pay its attackers $1.5 million, Wood County, Ohio, has announced its IT director has resigned.
In a letter sent to county department heads last Thursday, Wood County Administrator Carri Stanley said that IT Director Ben Hendricks, who’s been with the county for 18 years, will resign next month. To replace him, she wrote, the county has hired a Toledo firm called Glass City IT, which is providing the services of a chief information officer.
According to BG Independent News, the county is paying $88,000 for services billed as they are needed.
“We appreciate the patience, dedication, and endurance you and your staff have all shown during this very trying time,” the letter reads. “Your cooperation has been monumental in getting the county offices through a most difficult six weeks. We assure you that aggressive steps are being taken to ensure that the most appropriate technology, procedures, and systems are being put in place to protect the future security of our IT system.”
The announcement comes after Wood County, which sits more than 100 miles west of Cleveland, discovered on Dec. 9 that many of its IT systems had been taken down by ransomware. The ransomware attack disrupted public safety functions, including emergency dispatch, jails and the Bowling Green Police Division.
After consulting with private investigators and federal agencies, the county negotiated down the ransom to $1.5 million and issued payment, BG Independent News reported. Wood County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Dobson told the press that the systems are now back online. He also said the county will not disclose how the attackers found their way into its systems.
“We will probably never tell the public how the incident occurred,” Dobson said.
Before joining the county government as its IT director, Hendricks spent six years as a systems administrator for the investing firm Harbor Capital Advisors and then two-and-a-half years as a systems administrator with the research group North American Science Associates.
Hendricks, who will officially step down on Feb. 7, declined to comment for this story.
