LockBit exposes Florida county sheriff’s office data

The Washington County Sheriff's Office in Florida had all of its data stolen by the LockBit ransomware gang, including warrants and employee information, leaked on Tuesday, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Officials noted that the Washington County Sheriff's Office had its app, finance system, and jail networks disrupted by a ransomware attack between Feb. 21 and early March, with the attack claimed by LockBit on Feb. 27. However, communication lines were noted by Sheriff Kevin Crews to not have been impacted by the incident, while a sheriff's office spokesperson said that recovery from the ransomware attack was achieved nearly two weeks ago, with IT and database recovery efforts costing less than $20,000. Such an attack comes amid the continued dominance of LockBit in the ransomware threat landscape, with NCC Group noting that the operation was linked to more than 50% of ransomware attacks last month. "Looking at the most prevalent threat actors, Lockbit 3.0 looks set to carry on where it left off in 2022, and is already leading the way as 2023s most prevalent threat actor by some margin," said NCC Group Global Head of Threat Intelligence Matt Hull.