The website for the Dallas Central Appraisal District (DCAD) is back online after being hit with a ransomware attack in November.
Royal Ransomware, a sophisticated malware operation, is suspected of the attack, as reported by WFAA. The FBI is investigating the incident.
Even though the website is now live, an alert remains on the site, reading, “The Dallas Central Appraisal District is in the process of recovering from the November 8th cyber-attack which effected [sic] all of our computer operations. We are pleased that we are now able to re-publish our original website.”
DCAD officials believe the hackers gained access to the website through an email link clicked by an employee. While the cyberterrorists attacked on election day, officials suspect they were in the DCAD system long before that.
The hackers’ threat to publish DCAD records was no major concern for officials, as most DCAD records are already available to the public.
However, it did become a concern when the hackers locked the records away and demanded a $1 million ransom, as the files were not backed up anywhere else.
Eventually, DCAD paid the cyberterrorists $170,000 in cryptocurrency to release the records.
The Dallas Express contacted DCAD and asked what kind of cryptocurrency was used but received no response at the time of publication.
Even after DCAD regained access to the system, IT experts had to work on rebuilding the servers — a project still underway.
DCAD also hired third-party cyber-security companies and a firm to back up records elsewhere in case another cyber attack occurred.
These expenses have cost DCAD almost $500,000, which WFAA reported was taken from its taxpayer-backed emergency fund — an account that has not been accessed in 40 years.
While the website is now back online, there is still a backlog of documents that will take employees time to catch up on. Thousands of documents must be updated, including property records, deeds, exemption applications, and lawsuit judgments.
DCAD said property owners’ account information on the website should be updated in about one month.
DCAD also said property appraisals would be delayed this year by about a week from the usual date of April 21. The protest window has been extended to May 22 to compensate for this delay.