Clark County officials have provided very few details on the ‘suspicious activity’ that has impacted multiple county networks

Leah Anaya 
for Clark County Today

Due to what’s being referred to as “suspicious activity,” multiple Clark County networks have been interrupted, which are affecting first responders, courts, elections, and more. The issue began on Saturday, and while Joni McAnally, communications specialist with the county manager’s office, has said that County Information Technology has been working on a fix, they were not forthcoming in what exactly the “suspicious activity” entailed.

As of this writing, five days after the security breach, there are still issues in several county entities. While there has been no official verification, multiple sources have told Clark County Today that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been involved. According to those sources, who are close to the situation but asked to remain anonymous due to their positions, DHS contacted the 9-1-1 dispatch center, Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA), prior to the breach on Saturday to warn them it may happen. It’s unclear at this time whether further action was taken to protect the systems prior to the breach.

The county website stated, “Our Information Technology team detected this incident through tools monitoring our systems.” The county has not identified what type of security breach occurred, saying only, “Our investigation into the nature and scope of the incident is ongoing at this time.” They added that “an outside forensic consultant” has been brought into the investigation because “the county does not have on staff a team of this type of specialized forensic investigators.”

In an update from the county posted at 7 p.m. on Tuesday (Oct. 24): “Some parts of the county website are not available and some services may not be available at this time. In addition, some employee computers may not be working. Information Technology employees are investigating to learn the scope of the situation.”

The county website also indicated, “We have restored certain parts of the website that were initially unavailable.” The site said that there is “no indication of employee or resident information being impacted at this time, and that the “county will be transparent with employees and residents in the event that sensitive information is compromised.”

On Wednesday, Clark County Today received an email from McAnally, who confirmed the that the county noticed suspicious activity on Saturday.

“Clark County, on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023, began responding to the suspicious activity based on alerts from its internal monitoring tools,” McAnally stated in the email. “During the initial phase of the county’s response, it also received communications from law enforcement regarding similar information.”

The elections office has been in communication with Certified Election Observer (CEO) organizers from political parties. Elections Supervisor Cathie Garber has said that there are no longer any interruptions with VoteWA, which is the system used to update voter registration. However, as ballots have already been sent out and begun to be returned, there are interruptions to both sorting and signature verification, meaning neither have started yet.

According to Jon Anderson, who is one of the main organizers for Republican Party CEOs, Assistant Elections Supervisor Rich Cooper said that approximately 10,000 ballots have been turned in and are in the “secured storage room next to the sorter.”

The 10K figure is an estimate and does not include any of the Ballot Drop Box Pickup routes, Anderson told Clark County Today.

Charlene Huffman of the County Clerk’s office has sent out an update as well. “The Clerk’s Office was hit very hard as most of our staff have PCs rather than laptops,” Huffman said in an email. “Our focus has been on court proceedings which have continued as usual.” The email also included the following interruptions for Wednesday (Oct 25):

· E-file is not functional

· OnBase images are still not available

· We will be accepting new case filings. They must be in-person or by mail and you will receive a handwritten receipt.

· We have no cashiering capabilities.

· Ex parte will process as usual.

· We have a limited number of working computers in the office.

· We are taking calls, but most of our staff do not have access to computers, so we can give only limited information.

· We are unable to fulfill copy requests.

No further information has been released at this time, but Clark County Today will continue to monitor the situation.