Wise County Sheriff’s Office Reports Two Cyber Disruptions, Records Access Affected
Summary
The Wise County Sheriff’s Office told Texas officials hackers hit its systems twice, disrupting records access and public-information request processing. The notices do not establish whether data was accessed or systems restored after July 5.
Key points
- The sheriff’s office reported to the Texas attorney general that hackers hit its systems twice during the week before June 22, 2026.
- The disruption prevented staff from retrieving records and printing incoming public-information requests; logged and saved requests had to be rebuilt from sent emails.
- The office filed notices suspending Public Information Act deadlines from June 22 through July 5.
- The notices did not say whether systems were restored after July 5 or whether data was accessed.
- No public claim of responsibility was identified, and the office did not specify whether the incident involved ransomware or a ransom demand.
- The office separately warned about callers impersonating agency members, but the article found no link between those scams and the system disruption.
Article Details
- Victim Organization
- Wise County Sheriff’s Office
- Incident Type
- Cyberattack; the sheriff’s office said hackers hit its systems twice, but did not specify the attack method.
- Disclosure Date
- 2026-06-22
- Affected Records
- Logged and saved public-information requests were lost and had to be rebuilt from sent email files; the number of requests was not disclosed. No data exposure was confirmed.
- Operational Impact
- Staff could not retrieve records or print incoming public-information requests. The sheriff’s office said its systems had not been fully restored and gave no restoration estimate; the notices do not say whether systems were restored after July 5, 2026.
- Ransom Or Extortion
- No ransom demand was reported. The nature of the attack and whether ransomware was involved were not specified.
- Claim Status
- confirmed