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Spartanburg County, South Carolina outage draws cyber response

County offices remain open, but network and internet disruptions have continued for days as SLED’s cybersecurity unit assists.

Front entrance of the Spartanburg County Courthouse, a white columned building with “Spartanburg County Courthouse” above the doors.
The Spartanburg County Courthouse in Spartanburg, South Carolina, pictured in December 2024. (PegasusRacer28/Wikimedia Commons)

Spartanburg County offices remain open during a multi-day network and internet outage that has disrupted some services and communications while state cybersecurity officials assist.

County network outages can affect public-facing services, internal communications and records access across local government. Spartanburg County is in Upstate South Carolina, and its county seat is the city of Spartanburg.

Spartanburg County said it is experiencing temporary network and internet disruptions, with some services and communications temporarily affected. The county said its offices remain open and operational while its IT team works to restore systems.

The county posted the alert at 6:17 a.m. June 12. FOX Carolina reported Monday that the outage began Wednesday, June 10, and that county officials said the cause was still unknown.

Screenshot of a Spartanburg County “Network Disruptions” notice saying the county is experiencing temporary network and internet disruptions while offices remain open.
Spartanburg County posted a June 12 notice saying county offices remained open during temporary network and internet disruptions. (DysruptionHub screenshot)

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division told local outlets that its South Carolina Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity unit is assisting Spartanburg County with the outage. FITSNews reported that a SLED spokesperson said the investigation was active and ongoing.

SC CIC’s involvement is a strong indicator that the outage is being handled as a suspected cybersecurity incident. Still, officials have not publicly confirmed a cyberattack, ransomware, data theft, a ransom demand or a threat actor.

The county has not listed each affected service. Its public alert said only that some services and communications may be temporarily affected, and the county’s website continued to direct residents to online tax payments, citizen self-service and other public links.

FITSNews reported that the outage was affecting the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office by Wednesday afternoon and that at least one department was unable to check active warrant status as of Friday morning. DysruptionHub could not independently confirm that sheriff’s office impact from the county’s public alert.

SLED says it provides technical assistance and investigations for law enforcement agencies and other partners in South Carolina. Its South Carolina Fusion Center also works with public and private partners, including critical infrastructure, to detect, prevent and respond to criminal and terrorist activity.

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The outage follows two prior cybersecurity incidents involving Spartanburg County. WYFF reported the county experienced a ransomware attack in April 2023. In August 2025, county officials said another cybersecurity incident disrupted some online services, though 911 operations and emergency communications continued normally.

FOX Carolina later reported that 9,756 residents were affected by the August incident. A county notice said unauthorized access was identified Aug. 6, 2025, and that certain files were copied from the county network without permission. Officials said the incident did not materially affect county services.

If the current outage is confirmed as a cyberattack, Spartanburg County would join counties hit more than once in a short period. In Minnesota, Winona County said it responded to a January ransomware incident, and Gov. Tim Walz said in an April executive order that the county experienced another cyberattack targeting critical systems and digital services.

Major questions remain unresolved, including the cause of the current outage, which systems are affected, whether any systems were intentionally taken offline, whether data was accessed, whether law enforcement is investigating a crime and when full service will be restored. DysruptionHub requested comment from Spartanburg County on Monday, but the county did not respond by publication time.

As of Monday, Spartanburg County’s public alert said offices remained open and operational, but network and internet disruptions continued and full functionality had not been publicly restored.

Attribution note: DysruptionHub credits upstream reporting and primary sources—see citations above. If this report informed your coverage, please cite DysruptionHub with a link.
DysruptionHub Staff

DysruptionHub Staff

A collaborative project to bring you the latest cyberattacks impacting the availability of services and goods in the United States.

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