Click here for updates on this story
ATLANTA, GA (WGCL) — A state court representative told CBS46 that over the weekend it was discovered that hackers had found their way into the Georgia court system.
A spokesman for the state said the hack was discovered Saturday morning. He also confirmed hackers used ransomware, holding several state court systems hostage.
“Things should be easy, but it’s not. They making it hard on us,” Rose Stewart said.
Rose Stewart is one of many Georgia citizens who could’ve filed court documents online, but instead he had to do it in person following the cyber issues. The state court’s network is completely offline following a ransomware hack. A representative of the court said there’s no evidence that any personal information is at risk.
“When they say that no one’s information was stolen, you don’t know that, the only thing you know is when the ransomware took place,” Greg Evans explained.
Cyber expert Greg Evans told CBS46 the hackers could have potentially been inside the court’s system well before the ransomware was discovered. In fact, he said in many cases ransomware is used to cover other illegal cyber activity.
“If a hacker then takes those IP logs and deletes them or encrypts them, then you can’t get to them,” Evans said.
Even more shocking, Evans explained the criminal responsible for this hack, may not be a hacker themselves.
“There are websites out there that will rent you ransomware. Either you can pay them a flat fee or they will work off of commission and you give them who the target is, how much you want to charge,” he added.
Evans said tracking down the person responsible for the hack is extremely difficult due to multiple layers of online encryptions.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
