{ "id": "d765622a-7ebe-4754-9b91-0f5296e37224", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:09:19.415896Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T13:12:10.323616Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "bc8e2ecf19b1686a5e5f23520dde99937993aa32", "title": "Wisconsin county dealing with ‘catastrophic software failure’; California city declares ransomware emergency", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 124959, "plain_text": "Wisconsin county dealing with ‘catastrophic software failure’;\r\nCalifornia city declares ransomware emergency\r\nBy Jonathan Greig\r\nPublished: 2023-07-17 · Archived: 2026-04-05 21:22:05 UTC\r\nRansomware continues to plague regional governments in the U.S., with a Wisconsin county announcing a\r\n“catastrophic software failure” following an alleged LockBit ransomware attack, and a California city declaring a\r\nstate of emergency over a cyber incident that began last week.\r\nGovernment agencies in northern Wisconsin’s Langlade County shared urgent messages on social media on July\r\n11 warning that they were dealing with severe technology failures. The issues were not attributed to a cyberattack\r\nbut the LockBit ransomware group added the county to its list of victims this weekend, threatening to leak all data\r\nstolen from the government by August 1.\r\n“Langlade County Sheriff’s Office is experiencing a catastrophic software failure. All phone lines are non-functioning. 911 calls for assistance will be rerouted and handled,” the local sheriff’s office said last week,\r\nproviding a temporary phone number for those in need of assistance.\r\n Image: A posting by\r\nLockBit to its leak site.\r\nAlerts were shared by the Langlade County Health Department, Langlade County Emergency Management and\r\nthe police department of county seat Antigo. None of the agencies responded to requests for comment about\r\nhttps://therecord.media/wisconsin-county-dealing-with-software-failure\r\nPage 1 of 3\n\nwhether they were also dealing with technical issues related to the issues facing the sheriff’s office.\r\nThe county has a population of about 20,000 people.\r\nWhile news in recent weeks has centered on ransomware gangs like Clop and Black Cat, LockBit has continued\r\nits unprecedented run of attacks on organizations Two weeks ago the gang made waves with a $70-million ransom\r\ndemand after attacking a supplier for one of the world’s largest chip manufacturers.\r\nU.S. agencies recently said LockBit has claimed responsibility for at least 1,653 ransomware attacks, based on\r\nvictims posted to its leak site, and brought in at least $91 million in ransoms from U.S. victims since its first\r\nreported attack in the country in January 2020.\r\nThe group has made a point of going after local governments, launching attacks on small towns in Colorado,\r\nFlorida and Ohio, as well as larger cities like Oakland.\r\nJust south of Oakland, the city of Hayward discovered a ransomware attack last week, although no group has yet\r\nclaimed it. The city council officially declared a state of emergency on Thursday, which “allows for greater\r\nflexibility in executive decision-making, deployment of City employees, and acquisition of needed equipment,\r\nsupplies and other resources.”\r\n“It also can be a prerequisite to and streamline reimbursement of certain costs associated with responding to the\r\nincident,” the Hayward City Council said.\r\n“Since discovery of the cyber intrusion early Sunday morning, the City has maintained essential services,\r\nincluding 9-1-1 emergency dispatch, police, firefighter and emergency-medical response, water and sewer\r\noperations, and maintenance services. Access to the City website and email traffic into City offices have been\r\nrestored after being turned off as precautionary measures.”\r\nLast week, Hayward City Manager and Emergency Services Director Kelly McAdoo explained that she\r\ndetermined an emergency declaration is warranted “by virtue of the extreme peril to the safety of persons and\r\nproperty in the City caused by a cybersecurity attack, including attempts to disrupt and hold hostage aspects and\r\ncomponents of City computer systems and networks.”\r\nThe resolution approved last week lasts for seven days, giving officials time to mobilize larger forces to address\r\nthe cyberattack.\r\nThe city of more than 160,000 residents was forced to shut off its website and several online municipal portals in\r\nresponse to the cyberattack\r\nWhile some city websites have been restored many are still struggling to come back online.\r\nEmsisoft ransomware expert Brett Callow said at least 47 local governments in the U.S. have been impacted by\r\nransomware this year. In addition to the attack on Hayward, the Utah city of West Jordan and North Carolina’s\r\nCornelius both faced cyber incidents related to ransomware.\r\nGet more insights with the\r\nhttps://therecord.media/wisconsin-county-dealing-with-software-failure\r\nPage 2 of 3\n\nRecorded Future\r\nIntelligence Cloud.\r\nLearn more.\r\nNo previous article\r\nNo new articles\r\nJonathan Greig\r\nis a Breaking News Reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since\r\n2014. Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia.\r\nHe previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.\r\nSource: https://therecord.media/wisconsin-county-dealing-with-software-failure\r\nhttps://therecord.media/wisconsin-county-dealing-with-software-failure\r\nPage 3 of 3", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "ETDA" ], "origins": [ "web" ], "references": [ "https://therecord.media/wisconsin-county-dealing-with-software-failure" ], "report_names": [ "wisconsin-county-dealing-with-software-failure" ], "threat_actors": [], "ts_created_at": 1775434159, "ts_updated_at": 1775826730, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/bc8e2ecf19b1686a5e5f23520dde99937993aa32.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/bc8e2ecf19b1686a5e5f23520dde99937993aa32.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/bc8e2ecf19b1686a5e5f23520dde99937993aa32.jpg" } }