LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw said the office's entire network has to be rebuilt after Russian hackers installed malicious software, shutting down systems at every branch earlier this week.

Monday night the clerk's office announced all branches would be closed, saying simply it was due to an unexpected system outage. Officials later found that the outages were due to a ransomware attack that started around 4 a.m. July 22. All systems were down at branches across Jefferson County after hackers installed the malicious software, locking files and demanding money. 

"It was never on my radar," Holsclaw said in a news conference Thursday. "I have to be truthful with you about that. The security was as good as you could get for the money that we got to afford. All of our systems were top of line. Somehow, they got through one little crack. We will find that out and make sure that never happens again."

Holsclaw said the ransom hasn't been paid, but no personal information has been leaked, either.

"We've got backup, and, after so much testing, we found the backup was clean," she said. "... I want people to be rest assured that none of their personal information was touched." 

Recovering from the ransomware attack will take time, Holsclaw said, because it's not as simple as rebooting the system. Crews have to go through more than 300 computers separately to get things back up and running. She said that means branch will likely come back online at separate times. Holsclaw said that at least one location — the branch at Dixie Highway and Upper Hunters Trace, specifically — may reopen Friday.

In the meantime, Holsclaw encourages people to get help from neighboring clerk's offices — like Bullitt, Oldham or Shelby counties — for tasks like marriage licenses or July vehicle registrations renewal. Any mortgage or deed business will have to wait, because the legal department in Jefferson County has to handle those items.

The clerk's office said this is not tied to the CrowdStrike failure last week that caused offices around Jefferson County to close, prompting confusion and inconvenience for residents trying to renew their vehicles, and apply for marriage licenses and businesses licenses. It's also not tied to the massive backlogs facing Kentucky's new vehicle information system — KAVIS — in Frankfort.

The switch to KAVIS happened in January and it has caused transactions to hit a traffic jam. Kentucky shut down all registrations Jan. 1 so it could make the transition. It caused a lot of roadblocks by disrupting decals, plates, disabled parking permits, registrations or transfers until mid-January.

The former system, Avis, had been used by the state's motor vehicle administration for nearly 50 years. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet had been trying to switch to the new KAVIS system since 2001, but now that it has made the transition, wait times ended up being extended by 25 minutes earlier in the year.

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