Jackson County, Missouri declared a state of emergency after ransomware attack

Jackson County, Missouri, which contains most of Kansas City, reported significant disruption across its information technology systems on April 2, 2024 and said the problems were potentially attributable to a ransomware attack. The attack left some of the county's systems inoperative.

The Assessment, Collection and Recorder of Deeds offices closed to the public at every county location. Tax and online property payment services, marriage licence issuing, inmate searches and courthouse systems were among the functions knocked out. County Executive Frank White Jr. signed Executive Order 24-07 declaring a state of emergency, which gave staff latitude to respond quickly, including waiving competitive bidding rules for emergency purchases.

County officials said resident financial data was not held on the affected systems because payments are processed by a third-party vendor, PayIt, whose myJacksonCounty platform was unaffected. The county and Kansas City election boards operate separately from county systems, and officials said the incident would not affect elections.

The county brought in law enforcement and outside cybersecurity specialists to investigate. County Administrator Troy Schulte said protecting the integrity of county systems and the confidentiality of county data remained the priority. In the days after the disclosure the county did not identify the attackers or say whether any data had been taken.