Albemarle County reports ransomware attack exposing employee and resident data
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Albemarle County in Virginia is reporting a ransomware attack in June 2025 that may have compromised the personal data of government employees, public school staff, and county residents.
The event was initially described only as a "cybersecurity incident". It disrupted county operations and forced officials to take systems offline while conducting their investigation.
The ransomware attack began on the evening of June 10, 2025, and was discovered by county officials on the morning of June 11, 2025. Initially, the county announced only that internet services were down at county offices on June 12. The county did not publicly acknowledge that the incident was specifically a ransomware attack until July 10, 2025.
While it appears "likely" that Albemarle County government and public school employees' data was accessed, county officials stated that residents' data only "may" have been accessed. Ignoring the word salad of ambiguity in the statements from the County, the ransomware attack probably compromised sensitive information, including:
- Names
- Dates of birth
- Social Security numbers
- Other similar personal identifiers
The number of affected individuals has not been disclosed.
The county notified the FBI, CISA and the Cyber Fusion Center of the Virginia State Police. All three agencies have been investigating the attack. County officials engaged outside cybersecurity experts to guide their response and remediation efforts.
Albemarle County is offering complimentary credit monitoring, fraud consultation, and identity theft restoration services to Albemarle County residents and employees for the next 12 months.
Update - as of 17th of December 2025, Albemarle County reports that the incident compromised 185 gigabytes of data containing personal information of current and former government/school employees, residents, and service applicants.
