The county said it declined the ransom demand made by hackers, instead taking systems offline.
"We refuse to support or enable criminal enterprises, even when faced with difficult choices. While we understand this may offer limited comfort to those affected, standing firm sends a clear message: bad actors will not profit from this crime," the Friday statement reads.
The announcement comes as the county said it is aware of "recent social media reports" concerning the breach, which it has not verified.
"At this time, we have not confirmed the accuracy of these claims, and we will not speculate on information allegedly found on obscure parts of the Internet," the county's statement reads.
The county said the investigation into the attack remains ongoing and that it will continue to notify individuals affected by the breach.
It's not clear exactly what information was stolen from the victims, which include three county employees. The county has promised to provide those affected help with credit monitoring and identity theft protection.
The hackers were detected on county servers on March 21. The county downed its online servers — including court records, Wi-Fi and jail database — and gradually brought them back online as was deemed safe. All servers were up by March 27.
Until Friday, the county had declined to confirm whether or not the breach involved ransom.
When asked during a press conference amid the server outages, Communications Director Ross Cavitt only said "as far as it being a ransomware attack, we’re in a position where once the servers are brought back online, all the services should be available to residents, so we don’t expect any sort of disruption in any services or data that existed prior to this incident."
County staff have declined to sit with the MDJ for an interview about the breach, citing the ongoing investigation.
"The investigation into the March incident is ongoing, so it would be premature for anyone with the county to comment on the matter," an email from the Cobb County Communications Department reads.
Chairwoman Lisa Cupid did not immediately return the MDJ's request for comment Friday. Commissioner Keli Gambrill previously told the MDJ she thought the county staff has done a “great job” navigating a difficult situation.
“I think the county has done a great job in handling it. Unfortunately, breaches of information are all too common at this time,” she said. “Cobb County has handled everything according to the letter of the law."
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