DuPage County has fallen victim to a ransomware attack, with county officials confirming Monday that the sheriff's office, the 18th Judicial Circuit Court, and the DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk's office have been affected. “This afternoon, DuPage County confirmed it had been the target of a ransomware attack,” said Chief Judge Bonnie Wheaton, Circuit Court Clerk Candice Adams and Sheriff Jim Mendrick in a joint statement as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. They added that "Systems have been taken offline and the County is working to determine the full extent of the attack."
According to the details shared with CBS News Chicago, officials were alerted to the "cyber incident" around 2:30 a.m. Monday. The circumstances of the attack remain unclear, but efforts to quickly identify and respond to the disruption were initiated immediately. Despite the setback, in-person court activities were minimally affected and will continue on as planned.
Court hearings were held in person on Monday and are expected to proceed through Tuesday. While the full impact of the incident is being assessed, it is reported that jail and public safety operations have not been compromised by the outage. However, administrative functions such as chancery sales in the Sheriff's Office have been canceled for the week in response to the situation.
The seriousness of the situation has prompted county officials to seek assistance from federal agencies. The FBI and U.S. Secret Service have been informed and are actively leading the investigation into the matter. "The county has reported the attack to the FBI and Secret Service," the joint statement noted. As officials work hard to resolve all safety and operational concerns, it remains yet to see just how deeply the cyberattack has breached the county's digital defenses.
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