An apparent cyberattack on a digital-records management system vendor has affected some local governments and that includes Dallas County. 

County Recorder RaNae Arnold says that there was a cyberattack on their vendor they use for their digital-records called Cott Systems which has reverted them to only use paper-based processes for their documents. Arnold explains the problem in further detail. 

“So (Cott) got their data compromised. It was a worldwide hack that happened over Christmas and so they have been investigating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). They assure us that none of our data is gone. However, we’re not able to process documents through the system. If things are urgent, people can bring them in paper form to the office and we can help them out that way. But we are not able to do anything online at this time.

Arnold says that the system has been down for the last two weeks which she describes as unexpectable for the taxpayers of Dallas County.

“We’re spending taxpayer money on this system and I think we really need to take a look at if it is the best system or if there’s something else out there.”

According to Cott’s website, they serve 400 local governments across 21 states. Arnold tells Raccoon Valley Radio they hope to have the system up and running early this upcoming week.