Wexford County: cyberattack corrupted Register of Deeds backups; property closings delayed

Wexford County officials told the Board of Commissioners that a Nov. 5 cyberattack corrupted the Register of Deeds backups and left the county without usable electronic records after 2016, forcing the county to rely on recovered images and a prospective database rebuild.

The county’s report to the board said the register’s main system and its backups were compromised, investigators worked with the FBI and state police, and a data-recovery team was only able to recover electronic backups through 2016 and image files dating back to the 1980s. “We started calling software providers then to say, hey. How can you help us? We don't know how in-depth this is,” a county staff member identified in the meeting as Jeff said while describing the investigation and vendor work.

Why it matters: the loss affects title searches, tax records and pending real-estate closings; residents at the meeting said they have faced extra costs and uncertainty because record retrieval and indexing are delayed.

County staff told commissioners they worked with third-party cybersecurity firms, the FBI and the state police to assess the incident and recover data. The county hired a data-recovery firm that returned images and older backups; the most complete usable electronic backup ends in 2016. Software providers said they can convert recovered files and bring data forward from 2016, but the conversion requires rebuilding a new database and additional vendor work that has not yet been scoped or priced.

“Ultimately, what we ended up with from the data recovery team was a backup from 2016 back to 1986,” Jeff said. He told the board that vendors declined to import data until the county could show systems were clean, and that the holiday season slowed work when vendors were short-staffed.

Several members of the public described real-world effects. Toni Rose said she sold her house Nov. 16 but cannot close on her new purchase because tax and title records are not available; she told the board she has paid storage and other holding costs while closings are delayed. “I'm an anxiety mess every day because I'm waiting for them to say we're done,” Rose said during public comment.

County staff said they are waiting for software providers to supply a timeline and for an outside vendor to price the work to convert recovered images into a searchable database that can be uploaded into the Register of Deeds’ software. Staff said those contracts will be brought to the board for approval and that the county may need to call a special meeting to act quickly when vendor scopes and prices are available.

The county did not provide an estimated completion date for the database rebuild, the total cost of recovery and conversion work, or a detailed plan for interim measures for pending closings. At the meeting, staff emphasized they would not speculate about dates until vendors deliver firm scopes and pricing.

Next steps: staff will return with vendor scopes, costs and recommended contracts; the board may consider a special meeting to approve contracts once bids and timelines are available.