Users of St. Clair County government and courts have known for approximately 10 days that its computer system has not been functioning.
And while the county's IT director has not responded to questions about the disruption, St. Clair County Chief Judge Andrew Gleeson confirmed that it began early last week.
Gleeson said he did not know exactly what caused the county’s network to be down or when it began, but said he plans to conduct an assessment and review of the situation when he has more information.
However, Republican county board member Ed Cockrell of New Athens said he has been told by county department heads that the system was hacked.
"They are paintstakingly bringing it back up," Cockrell said.
"But I would be absolutely the last person to know anything more. I hear absolutely nothing."
Cockrell's only committee assignment is the Management Information Committee. He said as a member of that committee he has not received any briefing.
"St. Clair County is renowned, in my 26 years experience, for never admitting shortfalls or mistakes," he said. "In order to do that you have to own it and you don't ever hear that."
Cockrell said the disruption could not happen at a worse time as tax bills are going out. It also is creating havoc for other business, such as land sales.
While the county has not issued a statement regarding the disruption, some county employees when asked did not dispute that the IT system was hacked.
Gleeson said the county has been affected since returning to the building after Memorial Day last week. The issue has affected all county offices.
“It was a short week, that helped,” Gleeson said. “And we’ve done a lot here in terms of giving ourselves remote capabilities, and that helped, too.”
Gleeson added that the system is beginning to come back up, but they are still working on getting all employees back into the network. He explained that the IT department has employed a dual authentication process and not all employees have gotten access yet.
He said the network disruption prevented access to documents and records. However, he said staff were still able to conduct some business for cases with documents and docket-sheets on-hand. He added that the county’s Zoom capabilities allowed attorneys to continue meeting for hearings despite the setback.
“The impact was relatively minor,” he said.
Gleeson said the timing of the network disruption is difficult as jury trials are set to begin “so we can help clear out our criminal docket.”
Gleeson said these types of system failures and disruptions are occuring by various means “everywhere.”
“This is not something unique and unusual to St. Clair County,” he said.
He said technology offers many “wonderful” advances and opportunities, but can cause problems if security isn’t tight enough or glitches occur.
“We’re vulnerable when these systems go down,” Gleeson said.
“It’s a daunting, sobering process,” he added.