A virus has infected the case management database of the Pinal County Attorney's Office.
A release from Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles Tuesday night said employees processing a records request last week discovered a malicious virus known as CryptoLocker had taken over files.
CryptoLocker is part of a family of viruses known as ransomware that infect computers and demand payment to unlock them, according to the computer security site Sophos. While infected, employees cannot access the infected files.
The virus will slow the ability of the attorney's office to process some records requests until the issue can be resolved and the county's computers have been confirmed as secure.
"The antivirus software utilized by the county was completely useless in protecting our data stored on county servers," Voyles said in the news release. "I am frustrated by the lack of communication from the county. If we knew that the software was inadequate, the Pinal County Attorney's Office could have taken action to prevent this from happening to our case files. "
Officials did not have a total of how many files have been infected nor how the virus first entered the office's network.
