ANDERSON – In response to the ransomware attack on the Madison County computer system, data will now be stored at two off-site locations in hopes of preventing a future attack.
Prior to the November ransomware attack, Madison County only backed up data on the county’s computer network.
The Madison County Council approved almost $200,000 for the Information Technology System in the wake of the attack on the county’s computer system.
Last month Madison County paid a $21,000 ransom to obtain encryption keys as recommended by the county’s insurance carrier.
Lisa Cannon, director of the ITS Department, explained that $79,680 is to store the county’s computer files off-site with a firm based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The contract with US Signal will cost the county $6,400 per month.
She said $76,800 will be placed in the department’s budget for 2017 and the remaining $2,880 will be used to pay the costs for the backup for the remainder of this year.
The council approved $82,500 for equipment that Cannon said will be used for off-site storage of data in Anderson.
She said there is a one-time cost of $17,500, and the cost for 2017 will be $3,000.
Cannon said there was an additional contract signed to provide anti-virus protection on the computer files of the Madison County court system.
Prior to the ransomware attack, “we had no off-site back-up,” Cannon said. “We backed up every night in our system.”