Pennsylvania county still dealing with aftermath of unauthorized activity on its network

Phone and internet service have been restored inside the Delaware County Courthouse and Government Center, but there are still headaches from what the county says was unauthorized activity in its network.

CBS News Philadelphia is learning from multiple sources that the county was the target of a cyberattack nearly two weeks ago. The county said it responded, "by taking the proactive but necessary step of shutting down our network to continue to protect sensitive information and critical systems while following industry best practices in response to the intrusion attempts."

A spokesperson indicated there was a lot he couldn't say, including whether ransom demands were made. The Delaware County District Attorney's Office declined to comment on a possible investigation.

Mark Barone is a real estate broker and appraiser. He says the situation has complicated his business.

"My job has been at a standstill because the Delaware County Courthouse has been shut down for a couple of weeks," he said. "We use the public records data for our tax assessment, for appraisal work, for sketch plans and a lot of information we use, I can't get to it."

Sources inside county government say investigations have been slowed down as a result of the county's removal from the state's criminal justice portal known as "J-Net." A spokesperson for the sheriff's office said protection-from-abuse orders are now hand-delivered to neighboring sheriff's offices so they can be entered into the system and served. And without access to J-Net, deputies are using hard copy records to manually verify warrants.

Venkat Margapuri is a computer science professor at Villanova University.

"One thing organizations might focus on is educating their employees on how to identify phishing and cybersecurity trainings as well," he said.

The county says it hopes to be able to share information soon.