UPDATE 6/13/24 4:10 p.m.
“Grand Traverse County recognizes that there has been a significant challenge with the public’s ability to contact Departments and Elected Offices through our phone system. Much of this challenge is due to the voicemail system and part of the County’s phone system being supported by the County’s network that is currently shut down. In an effort to improve the experience we have identified a phone number and email address as a contact for each Elected Office and Department. That information is on the front-page of Grand Traverse County’s website located at www.gtcountymi.gov.”
6/12/24 6:30 p.m.
TRAVERSE CITY — Grand Traverse County and the City of Traverse City are dealing with network disruptions Wednesday after a ransomware attack.
At this point, they haven’t been able to confirm if any data was stolen, but they are working with Michigan State Police and the FBI.
They are asking people to delay in-person business at the County and City treasurer’s, clerk’s and register of deeds office if possible. You are still able to make online payments at this time.
County administrator Nate Alger said they shut down the network as a precautionary measure while they investigate.
“There was some activity on our system that was interrupting service. Recognizing that we did not want to have a potential threat with our system, we opted to shut the network off and that is the situation that we are currently in,” said Alger.
Alger said the IT department and leadership officials were contacted about some irregularities that were noticed early this morning.
While the network shut-down does complicate government in the county and city-with some service being impacted, alger said emergency services, including 911, law enforcement, and fire operations are not affected.
“All essential services are up and operational. So if you call 911, you’re going to reach a dispatcher. If you need a police car, you’re going to get one or a fire truck or an ambulance,” said Alger.
Traverse City manager, Elizabeth Vogel said it does impact how they are able to do their jobs with police officers and others in government not able to access data off their computers
“My first phone call after I spoke with Nate was with our police chief just to make sure what interruptions, if any, were occurring and how they were taking care of it. And I believe the word was old school,” said Vogel.
Alger said they have other tools at their disposal and they are prepared.
But the city and county have been working together to restore services as soon as possible while investigating the origin of the ransomware attack.
“Short term, we want to deploy the redundant efforts that we have to make sure that county, city staff can do their job at their workspaces and that services are minimally impacted long term,” said Alger.
Vogel said they are busy with work-arounds until they can get everything back the way it was.
“The county is deploying mobile hotspots and sharing those resources with the city. So as each individual desktop or machine gets cleared and then we will be bringing the internet up and running through those mobile hotspots,” said Vogel.
Alger said he doesn’t believe any vital information was taken but he did confirm that it was indeed a ransomware attack.
“We are fairly certain at this point that no customer information has been shared or impacted by this network disruption,” said Alger.
He adds that it could be a while until we know the full picture.
“It could be days, it could be a week before we have a full appreciation for what this scenario is,” said Alger.
The county courts are also impacted. Scheduled court dockets are canceled through Friday and will be rescheduled. Preliminary exams that were to take place Wednesday will be held over Zoom on Thursday. Custody arraignments will proceed over Zoom as normally scheduled.
6/12/24 4:50 p.m.
TRAVERSE CITY — Grand Traverse County has confirmed that a ransomware incident occurred on Wednesday.
The County says they’re working with Michigan State Police, FBI and liability providers to better understand what happened. A transfer of data has not been confirmed at this time.
As a precautionary effort, the County and City networks will be offline until further notice.
6/12/24 2:50 p.m.
TRAVERSE CITY — Grand Traverse County says they saw “network irregularities” around 6 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The IT Department and County leadership were contacted and a decision was made to take the county and the city of Traverse City offices network offline as a precaution. They are currently investigating the issue.
“We are diligently monitoring the situation to identify the source of the issue and explore available remedies. More information will be shared as it becomes available,” said Nate Alger, Grand Traverse County administrator.
The county says public safety services like 911, law enforcement and fire operations are unaffected.
Customer service at the Governmental Center
“There are impacts on county and city in-person customer services, especially those requiring network connectivity. If possible, please delay non-urgent in-person payments to the county and city treasurer’s offices. However, online payments remain unaffected as they are managed through separate third-party platforms. Customer information is secure and has not been compromised. Additional services affected include the county and city clerk’s offices and the county register of deeds.”
Website access
“Both the county and city’s website are hosted on separate servers and are intact for visiting and navigation.”