Local

Hacker targets Anson County websites again

CONCORD, N.C. — The same hacker who targeted Anson County’s website Friday struck again Monday.

They shut down three of the county's websites posting an image of a man in a Guy Fawkes mask holding an anti-government sign.

The sites were back up and running and no sensitive information was compromised.

Hackers target three local government agencies

Three local government agencies have struck by cyberattackers.

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The homepages for the city of Concord and Anson County were replaced by a man in a mask holding an anti-government sign calling for people to "join the revolution." The message included profanity and indecent gestures.

"There are some things that I think, at this day in age, are a little over the top. I think that is one way to put it," Neil Sullivan, of Concord, said.

Concord and Anson County restored their homepages in a relatively short time. A spokesperson for the city said no data was compromised.

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"The city of Concord apologizes to anyone who may have seen inappropriate language on its website and to any customers who may be inconvenienced while the issue is resolved," said Peter Franzese, who is the public affairs manager for the city.

The hacker for Concord and Anson County appears to be the same person.

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office is also dealing with a major cyberattack. The FBI is investigating.

A ransomware attack has crippled the servers of the Sheriff's Office.

"It's sad that people are gonna try to do things like that but there are people that commit crimes every day," Sheriff Bill Beam said.

The Sheriff's Office has been told in order to free the servers, it will have to pay a ransom. Instead of giving into the hackers' demands, IT personnel will rebuild the servers from scratch.

"If it's $5 or $5 million, it doesn't matter. We're not paying a ransom," Beam said. "There were security measures we did not have in place that could have protected us from this. We had been basically a little negligent about being up to par on some of the latest technology that we should of had in place."

It will likely take several weeks to rebuild the servers.