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Luzerne County has paid $563,196 to date recovering from a Memorial Day weekend cyber attack, although officials are expecting insurance to cover most of the expense.
The figure is buried in the proposed 2020 budget under a new cyber attack line item in the information technology department, which falls under the administrative services division.
Division Head David Parsnik said he added the cyber budget category so year-to-date spending could be publicly tracked, but he did not request request a budget allocation for 2019 or next year anticipating that the incident was a one-time occurrence that won’t require general fund operating expense beyond a $10,000 deductible.
County Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo said the county continues to forward all bills to the cyber risk insurer and is still awaiting approval and reimbursement.
Most of the expense has been for experts required to unlock data and restore databases, Parsnik said. The county also worked with the insurer to hire consultant New York City-based Arete Advisors and a law firm to complete a forensic analysis of the attack.
The county has purchased a cyber risk policy under its general liability insurance coverage through The Travelers Companies Inc., commonly known as Travelers, since at least 2018, Crocamo has said. This policy covers security breach remediation and computer programming and electronic data restoration expenses, she said.
County assessor’s office workers are still unable to access all property assessment records or input changes in their computer system because a valuable office database is still down. Parsnik said the database likely won’t be fully rebuilt until the end of January. It contains property descriptions, photographs, sketches and assessment history for 167,800 parcels.
Budget presentation
Parsnik is set to present his proposed 2020 budget to council Tuesday during a work session starting at 5 p.m. at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.
The administrative services division budget is proposed at $5.57 million in 2020, or $284,600 more.
Some of the increase stems from the proposed creation of two new IT positions — network analyst and security analyst — at salaries of $50,000 each. Parsnik said the cyber attack highlighted the need to beef up technology assistance in the department, which currently has nine positions, including three funded by the court.
The proposed IT budget is $1.4 million, or an increase of $130,050.
A breakdown of the proposed 2020 spending totals for the other departments or categories under administrative services and how they compare to 2019 allocations, according to analysis:
• Human Resources, $424,809 ($9,470 more)
• Election Bureau, $837,288 ($10,070 more)
• Mapping/GIS, $362,450 ($880 more)
• Purchasing, $170,920 ($5,600 more)
• Licensing, $63,907 ($4,900 less)
• Liability/property/auto insurance, $2.3 million ($133,400 more)
Other budgets
The proposed budget seeks a 5 percent real estate tax hike, although several council members have said they are confident they will significantly whittle down expenses before the Dec. 10 budget adoption.
County Budget/Finance Division Head Brian Swetz also is set to discuss his budget Tuesday due to a rescheduling of last week’s planned presentation. He is requesting $3.28 million, or $128,650 more.
Most of the uptick is from a proposed $100,000 increase for tax assessment appeal refunds, which would bring that allocation to a new $550,000.
The county already exceeded this year’s $450,000 allocation, forcing a budget transfer — a development blamed on big-ticket, multiple-year refunds resulting from a push to close out older appeals. The year-to-date spending on refunds: $463,000, the budget said.
The budget/finance division includes five departments/categories with the following proposed allocations next year:
• Administration, $1.04 million ($66,230 more)
• Assessor’s, $770,290 ($9,840 more)
• Tax collection, which includes the appeal refunds, $1.1 million ($99,910 more)
• Treasurer’s office, $177,530 ($4,160 more)
• Miscellaneous general government, $181,500 ($51,500 less)
The two remaining budgets up for discussion Tuesday are for the public defender’s and controller’s offices.
Chief Public Defender Steven Greenwald’s budget is proposed at $2.6 million, or $52,400 more. Controller Michelle Bednar is seeking $277,000, an increase of $3,800.