More than two weeks after the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department was hit with a cyberattack, the department is still working to get all of its systems back online.
The sheriff's department was able to recover the data, but out of precaution they shut down most of its systems, including email, internet and many computers in the department's vehicles just to make sure there were no more security threats. "Public safety operations have not been affected," the department said in a statement. "Deputies are able to run backgrounds on people and are still getting dispatched to calls. The county is conducting a forensics investigation to achieve a complete understanding of any impact to our operations before we fully use the system."
"The cost is pretty brutal, not just to financial - but in the case of law enforcement - it's the agency, the people they are serving," said Vivek Bhandari of Titanium, an organization that helps organizations keep their systems secure. "In the hospitals, sometimes it can impact patient care and we've seen that."