The Gilmer County Assessors Office expects to have all property assessment notices finished and mailed by the expected date despite a recent cyberattack, which caused problems for several county government offices.
Chief Appraiser Theresa Gooch gave an update on the aftermath of the March ransomware attack during the board of assessors’ most recent meeting.
“The staff kept it as seamless as possible (and we had) very little interruption. I’d say it was the best-case scenario for us,” she said. “It does take a team, and there was a lot of people working to make sure the entire county didn’t see interruptions. We’re still working with one of our vendors to restore our CAMA Cloud (iPad service). Everything else, we were able to work through. We stayed operational and accepted homesteads, CUVAs and personal property. (We) helped the public every day, were able to meet all the statutory deadlines, and we’re on time with all our schedules.”
Gooch noted approximately 700 parcels still needed to be updated with data following the ransomware attack, but that was already underway.
“We encountered the system being (down) and a little bit of internet connectivity (issues), but the staff jumped right in as far as working around and finding solutions even to the point of printing blank documents and bringing them in,” she said. “You never realize how much technology is important to you until you don’t have access to it.”
Assessor board chairman Bill Logan said a big reason that the office was able to surpass much setbacks following the digital attack was because a daily backup of the system and its records is kept in case of an unforeseen event like this.
“The last backup of the system was that Friday afternoon. This office had a backup system ready that they could reinstall. That’s the reason they’re able to go on,” he added.
Logan and board members Jerry Davis, Lisa Bradley, Gary Engel and John Williamson gave kudos to the assessors office staff and Gooch for being prepared in advance to deal with this type of situation, which came as the office was getting ready for assessment notices and working to meet state deadlines prior to completing this year’s property tax digest.
“I appreciate the staff and how hard they work. They take their jobs seriously, and this proves (their) dedication. We didn’t miss any of our state deadlines. It would have really been an issue to start back over and redo what you’ve already done,” Logan said. “This county works off paperwork that’s generated here. If they weren’t as diligent as they were, we would be in the same shape as Fulton County. They got ransomwared bad, and theirs is still messed up.”
The assessors office expects to have assessment notices, including those for real property, ready to be mailed by May 24.
“As of right now, we’re still on target to mail our notices,” Gooch said.