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A cyberattack crippled Fort Bend County's library system, costing taxpayers millions to restore services. Documents reveal the extent of the financial impact and security upgrades. #cyberattack #library #taxes #security #FortBendCounty
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The Fort Ben County Library System is
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celebrating a relaunch of its services.
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Since March, ABC13 has been telling you
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about issues at the library. Our
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reporting revealing a massive cyber
0:10
attack that crippled the system.
0:12
While people were celebrating the
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relaunch, library leaders made it no
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mention of just how much it really cost
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to get those services restored. ABC13
0:21
Signario got the documents which
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revealed how much it cost taxpayers
0:25
millions of dollars.
0:28
You can't miss a colorful display
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outside of Fort Bang County Libraries
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letting people know the services are
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back online. But in order to make it
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happen, it took a lot of time and money.
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Documents we received show it cost
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taxpayers millions of dollars.
0:43
Fort Bank County wants neighbors to know
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its libraries are back open for
0:47
business. This was the scene at relaunch
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events held at different branches just
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days ago. But the celebration is
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confusing to some.
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I was like, well, I'm hope you're open.
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like what's going on? I didn't know
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y'all were closed even.
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I was confused on why it was um now
1:01
open.
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The libraries weren't closed, but their
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systems were offline for months. In
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February, the library director said a
1:08
cyber incident took place. Emails we
1:11
received revealed what the IT director
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called the largest cyber attack in the
1:15
county's history. Today, Wi-Fi,
1:17
computers, and library card services are
1:19
back to make it happen. We asked how
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much money it took. The documents we
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received show the price tag was nearly
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$6 million.
1:28
I think that's good. I mean, there's a
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lot of taxpayer money going into a lot
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of worse things.
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It's a lot, especially in this economy.
1:35
It's It's a lot.
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The documents we got from the county
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shows how the money was spent. About a
1:40
million dollars went on new equipment,
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$3.8 million on software, and another
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million dollars on new IT personnel. To
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pay for it, the documents show they use
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federal and county tax dollars. Judge KP
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George told ABC13 the cyber attack was a
1:53
major challenge that required a major
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investment. IT experts told us months
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ago this wouldn't be cheap.
2:00
Now there's so much to catch up on that
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it's it's very timeconuming. It's going
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to be expensive.
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Documents we obtained from record
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requests show cyber attackers entered
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through an open system. The emails also
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show library staff had asked for years
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to upgrade its security. We asked how
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much it would have cost to upgrade the
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system before this attack, but the
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library director didn't say. A
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multi-million dollar fix that experts
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say could have been prevented.
2:27
Having routine maintenance completed and
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having that proper cyber security
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hygiene program in place and focusing on
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this would have certainly helped.
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The county didn't just spend millions of
2:39
dollars improving its security. It also
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made changes here at the library. Prior
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to the attack, the library ran its own
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IT department. Now, county officials say
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that the library is under the county IT
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department's umbrella.
2:55
And Nick, before we let you go, you just
2:57
talked about how much money was spent
2:59
rebuilding. What about those relaunch
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parties that you mentioned? Any idea how
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much money was spent there?
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All the libraries had one of these
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relaunch events last week. There was
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food, giveaway, decorations. But we
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asked who paid for all of this. The
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library director told us that some of
3:16
the stuff was donated, but still the
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library ended up spending about $380 on
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these events. relaunch parties that were
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brought on after county IT officials and
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their emails say were years of security
3:29
neglect that led up to that cyber
3:31
Attack.
#Hacking & Cracking
#Government
#Network Security