“If you see this message — this means your files are now encrypted and are in a non-working state!”
That note was discovered on the Bluffton Township Fire District’s computer servers on Sunday, which were rendered inoperable by a hacker, according to a report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
Staff at the fire department discovered they could not log into their computers Sunday and alerted Information Technology staff, who discovered that records, files and email communications had been encrypted. Late Sunday night, they reported the issue to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, S.C. Law Enforcement Division and Cyber Crimes unit for the F.B.I.
Personal information on the fire department’s servers was not accessed in the hack, and the department’s ability to respond to emergencies was not affected, Bluffton Fire Capt. Lee Levesque said.