The following is a statement from Sheriff Joseph “Joe” Baron of the City of Norfolk Sheriff’s Office. You are welcome to quote him directly:

The Norfolk Sheriff’s Office’s internal IT department was made aware of suspicious activity on our computer systems. We immediately acted and engaged outside cybersecurity experts who confirmed we were the victim of a cybersecurity event. This is, unfortunately, an increasingly common threat to law enforcement agencies, and we are thankful for our team’s quick action to stop the incident.
 
This is an isolated issue that impacts our records and other operational systems. This is not a security threat. Our jail’s physical security, including doors, camera systems, and other vital checkpoints, is managed on a separate network that was not impacted by this cyber incident.
 
The outage is limited to our records system, which includes the publicly available Inmate Lookup Tool on our website. We are working to restore this resource as quickly as possible.

We are working vigilantly around the clock to determine the complete scope of the incident and make repairs to our IT systems. We are also working closely with our colleagues in the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Division, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Cyber Fusion Center of the Virginia State Police. We are also grateful to our extended team at the City of Norfolk for their assistance.
 
We thank our community for its support and understanding.

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The Norfolk Sheriff's Office is a values driven organization
committed to public safety, public service, and public trust.