Clark County councilor calls county’s website issue a 'cyberattack'

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Clark County Councilman Gary Medvigy said at Tuesday’s board meeting that the county’s ongoing IT issues are related to a “cyberattack.”

The description provides insight into the issues that shut down some of the services offered through the county’s website on Oct. 21. Prior to Tuesday's meeting, Clark County officials were vague about the problem, referring to it as “suspicious website activity.” County spokesperson Joni McAnally also declined to say if the county was recently targeted by hackers.

“[These are] attacks that go on every minute of every hour in the United States and every business, corporation, every county … they’re all vulnerable to these attacks,” Medvigy said.

During the meeting, the council unanimously approved an emergency resolution to waive the competitive bidding process and immediately hire an unnamed “forensic consultant” to determine the impacts of the cyberattack.

The county said that there is no evidence that employee or resident information was compromised at this time. The county’s Property Information Center and Geographic Information Services webpages remain offline as a result of the attack. The issue initially also affected the county’s jail roster webpage. However, that portion of the website was restored.