Bucks County’s 911 computer system partially restored after ransomware attack
While the computer-aided dispatch system was down, a backup system was used and no calls were missed, county officials said.
After a nine-day outage because of a ransomware attack, “core functionality” was restored to the Bucks County 911 computer-aided dispatch system on Tuesday, county officials said.
The county is still working on restoring the full system.
But the county’s access to databases, including the National Crime Information Center and the state’s Commonwealth Law Enforcement Assistance Network, has been restored, officials said.
While the dispatch system was down, a backup system was used, with dispatchers recording information from calls on pen and paper and relaying that information to first responders over the radio, officials said.
“At no point during the outage were the county’s 911 call-taking abilities interrupted,” the county said in a statement.
“With some of the weight lifted from our dispatchers, we now look forward to working with our partner agencies to restore their full access to these critical tools as quickly and safely as we possibly can,” Emergency Services Director Audrey Kenny said in a statement.
Kenny said there was no timeline for the system’s full restoration.
The ransomware attack occurred Jan. 21 and remains under investigation.
Ransomware attacks cause a targeted computer system or network to become inaccessible while the perpetrators demand money to restore access.