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Hamilton County, Tenn., Sheriff’s Site Restored After Incident

The county sheriff’s website came back online Monday, after a cybersecurity event prompted its shutdown in mid-April. The Sheriff’s Office has worked with a cyber defense company to restore systems.

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(TNS) — The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office website went back online Monday, two weeks after a cyber-ransomware event prompted the agency to shut down its online services.

Between April 14 and April 28, when attempting to visit the Sheriff's Office website, after watching a spinning blue circle for a period, some users saw an error message saying the website took too long to respond.

Since the incident occurred, the HCSO has been working methodically and diligently alongside an external cyber defense firm to preserve and examine this cyber-ransomware event and systematically restore service to all internal and external systems, Sheriff Austin Garrett said in a news release.

There are a few internal software systems that are not yet operational. The information technology department at the agency expects to have all software systems operational later this week, according to the release.

As of Wednesday morning, booking reports from the two-week period the website was down were still unavailable. Photos of inmates who were booked during that period of time were also unavailable on the website.

©2025 the Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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