Editor’s Note (Updated: Dec. 19, 2025): This story was updated to reflect the latest publicly available status and to add context and sourcing.
What changed:
- Clarified what county officials said was targeted and what remained offline
- Added federal-response detail cited in published reporting
- Added county population context
- Added note on breach-notice tracking in Washington state
Franklin County, Washington, said it stopped a brute-force attempt against county servers in late June 2024, restoring most systems within days while keeping one system offline for maintenance and investigation.
Franklin County officials said the attempted intrusion targeted the county’s online servers and was detected quickly by the county’s IT department, preventing a data breach.
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Most county systems were back in operation soon after, but the specific system targeted in the attack remained offline for maintenance and investigative work, according to published reporting.
The response involved outside assistance, including Homeland Security, as the county worked to recover and review what happened.
In a statement shared by local media at the time, county officials said they had no indication that county data was accessed.
Franklin County, in southeast Washington, serves about 99,000 residents and is headquartered in Pasco, the county seat.
As of Dec. 19, 2025, no public breach notice tied to the June 2024 incident was located in Washington’s attorney general data breach notifications directory, which publishes notices submitted under state law.
