Cyber Incident in Fulton County, Georgia Impacts Background Checks

In January, Fulton County - Georgia’s most populous county that includes the city of Atlanta - experienced a cyber incident that significantly impacted county services and systems. The incident resulted in widespread system outages including department office phone lines, internal operations systems, and access to many public services.

History of Impacts

Fulton County immediately began work to identify the source of the incident and restore systems. Here’s a quick timeline of updates from the County:

• January 28, 2024 – Fulton County announces it “is experiencing an unexpected IT outage currently affecting multiple systems.”
• January 30, 2024 – The county identifies a cybersecurity incident as the cause of the outages. Law enforcement is now involved and investigating. “There is no evidence at this time that Personally Identifiable Information (PII) has been exposed during this incident.”
• February 5, 2024 – Limited phone service is restored. The county resumed marriage and gun licenses.
• February 14, 2024 –The county acknowledges that a financially motivated unauthorized third party claimed to be responsible for the cyber incident.
• February 22, 2024 – Some online billing systems have been restored. Half of the county phones are back in service.
• March 4, 2024 – Most county phones are now in service.
• March 15, 2024 – All phones have been restored. Property tax and court access systems are now available.

The Effect on Background Checks

From the beginning of the outages, access to court systems were unavailable for third-party background checks. The background check industry was, and continues to be, heavily impacted by the waterfall of impacts related to inaccessible public court records.

In the county’s most recent update it states that, “Work has been continuous to restore systems and significant progress has been made.” A new source for third-party access to court records is now available but the county has noted that “Some filings that were made since the incident in late January may not appear at this time while restoration is continuing.”

As third-party screening companies begin working through the backlog of searches, the impacts of the significant outage will continue. There is no set date for complete court record access available at this time, but Verified Credentials continues to monitor the status in Fulton County.

Updated: March 22, 2024