Cyber Incident Victim: Schuyler County Sheriff's Department

In September 2017, the Schuyler County Sheriff’s Department in Watkins Glen, New York, experienced a disruptive cyberattack targeting its communications infrastructure. According to Sheriff William Yessman Jr., the incident involved a brute force attack originating from a foreign-based computer system that repeatedly attempted password combinations until gaining unauthorized access. This breach temporarily crippled critical operational systems, including the 911 emergency response network and the department’s ability to dispatch deputies to service calls. The attack forced the agency to rely on support from neighboring counties to maintain emergency response capabilities during the disruption. Officials, including New York State Sheriffs’ Association Director Peter Kehoe, cited the incident as evidence of local government networks’ vulnerability to cyber intrusions. The department did not specify the exact duration of the outage or whether any data was exfiltrated during the breach.

In response to the incident, Sheriff Yessman circulated an internal memo characterizing the event as a deliberate foreign cyberattack on the department’s systems. The Sheriff’s Department did not publicly disclose technical details about the compromised systems or the specific foreign entity suspected of launching the attack. No information was provided regarding whether law enforcement or cybersecurity agencies initiated forensic investigations or attributed responsibility for the intrusion. The disruption highlighted dependencies on interconnected emergency systems and the operational risks posed by unauthorized network access. The incident prompted public warnings from sheriffs’ associations about cybersecurity threats facing local government agencies but did not result in publicly disclosed changes to statewide security protocols or funding allocations for infrastructure hardening.