Software provider to state and local governments hacked
DALLAS (AP) — A major provider of software services to state, county and local governments, including the online publishing of election results, told customers Wednesday that an unknown intruder broke into its phone and information technology systems.
Tyler Technologies, a Plano, Texas-based S&P 500 company, said in an email to customers that it discovered the breach Wednesday morning, contacted law enforcement and enlisted outside cybersecurity help. It did not say whether ransomware may have been involved.
Tyler provides software services for everything from jail and court management systems to payroll, human resources, tax and bill collection and land records. It also serves schools.
County governments in the Seattle, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Nashville areas have used the Tyler's software Socrata to share election data in the past, although it was not immediately clear whether they still do or how central the platform is to their election operations.
Department of Homeland Security officials have warned that election results reporting systems could be attractive targets for hackers seeking to interfere in the Nov. 3 presidential election. They could also be inadvertently targeted by profit-seeking ransomware purveyors.
Tyler did not immediately respond to phone calls and emails. On Twitter, it said “a network issue” was affecting its phones and website that it was “working to resolve as quickly as possible."
“At this time and based on the evidence available to us to-date, all indications are that the impact of this incident is limited to our internal network and phone systems,” said an email sent to customers and obtained by The Associated Press. “We currently have no reason to believe that any client data, client servers or hosted systems are...