Brazos County cybersecurity team speaks on new ransomware attacks

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Cyber security attacks put vital information at risk that can ruin lives. Recently, they’ve been happening all over the US, including the Dallas municipal court house.

The hit left the court house closed for almost a month, prompting KBTX to look into Brazos county’s local cyber security.

“Our adversaries are too well resourced and there’s too many of them for you to assume that it’s never going to happen,” said Chief information security officer, Kevin Joyner.

Leading the way for Keeping the Brazos county courthouse and other entities safe from ransomware attacks, Joyner explains what some attackers plan to do with the information.

“They want credentials, they wanna get log in information user ids and passwords,” said Joyner. “Those are turned around and sold on the dark web to other people who can use them for nefarious purposes.”

One Brazos county resident fell victim to a ransomware attack, when his brother lost his life savings.

“We talked to some supervisor and they said the account balance is $0,” said Shoukat Dharani.

After months of negotiating they finally got the money, back it’s still a stark reminder to do everything you can to protect your information.

“You have to be proactive about those things so change your password regularly, use a VPN, and do not answer personal data on the phone,” said Dharani.

As for the safety of cyber security in our local courthouse and admin building, Kevin Joyner and his team say they are ready should any ransomware attacks hit.

“When something does happen we’re ready and we’re ready to step in and stop it as quickly as possible.”

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