Suspicious activity on computer systems disrupted online inmate reports and fingerprint scheduling at the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Kansas, officials said.
The sheriff’s website first posted a disruption notice Aug. 11, blaming technical issues and listing both services as offline until further notice. Three days later, the office told the Lawrence Journal-World that it had detected suspicious activity on certain computer systems.
The office said it launched an investigation to identify the source and determine the nature, scope and impact of the activity. It has not said when the activity began.
In a statement reported Aug. 22 by the Journal-World, the office said some systems and services had experienced intermittent outages and warned that certain services could be delayed. It did not identify the affected internal systems.
Officials said 911, emergency response and all other public-safety services remained fully functional. They said the suspicious activity appeared limited to the sheriff’s office and that other county systems remained functional.
Led by elected Sheriff Jay Armbrister, the office handles county law enforcement, jail operations, inmate transport, court security and civil process. It has not said which of those functions, if any, experienced delays beyond the two public services it identified.
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The county denied a Journal-World request for records about the incident, citing Kansas Open Records Act exceptions for privileged material and cybersecurity information whose release could jeopardize public safety. The sheriff’s office would not confirm or deny whether ransomware was involved and did not answer questions about email, personal information or whether public money had been committed to the response.
Other sheriff and corrections agencies have also lost access to records this summer. The Wise County Sheriff’s Office in Texas said hackers left staff unable to retrieve records or print incoming public information requests, while a server intrusion at a Massachusetts county jail prompted officials to suspend in-person visits because staff could not access screening documents.
As of Aug. 26, the sheriff’s website still listed inmate reports and fingerprint scheduling as offline, and officials had not announced a restoration timetable. The office did not respond to DysruptionHub’s requests for comment by publication time.
