Tarrant County homeowners' personal information released on the dark web
FORT WORTH, Texas - Officials gave an update on the ransomware attack at the Tarrant Appraisal District as the office handles walk-ins during the busy protest season.
"They originally had demanded $700,000 dollars," said Chief Appraiser Joe Don Bobbitt.
Bobbitt confirmed the discovery that some homeowners' personal information was released on the dark web.
"We know it was posted, but we haven't been able to get access to it. The attorneys and cybersecurity incident response team, they’re looking into it," he said.
Bobbitt says the impacted homeowners have been contacted via email and letters.
The TAD website now has a message for its visitors.
"Our investigation has determined that the legally protected personal information of less than 300 individuals has been impacted by this incident," it reads.
The site also has detailed information on how individuals can safeguard themselves by contacting credit bureaus and taking preventative action, such as freezing their credit.
"It would be, I guess, a little surprising that the adversaries would download only 300 records," said Mitch Thornton from SMU's Darwin Deason Institute for Cybersecurity. He says it is likely the cyber criminals have more information than TAD suspects.
He also says strengthening security, as TAD says it is doing, is imperative.
"Certainly TAD should increase security, and there are some things the victims who had their data exposed can do," Thornton said. "There’s probably going to be a lot of criticism of the district for not paying ransom, but it is true that in these ransom attacks many times paying the ransom does not keep the adversaries from wreaking havoc."
"We are not trying to minimize the impact to those 300 people. We know that’s a very big deal. We’re just glad it didn’t affect everybody in the county because it could’ve been much worse," said Bobbitt.
TAD has said the criminal group Medusa is behind this attack. They're monitoring the group's dark web channel.
FOX 4 asked today if there is any consideration to pay the $700,000 demand. Bobbitt says that's all still being evaluated.