Iranian-Backed Hacker Group Claims Breach of St. Joseph County Systems An Iranian-linked hacking collective, Handala Hack, has alleged a cyberattack on St. Joseph County, Indiana, claiming to have exfiltrated two terabytes of sensitive data. The stolen information reportedly includes county employee records, police reports, court documents, health records, and death certificates. The group gained notoriety earlier this week after asserting it had compromised the email of FBI Director Kash Patel, though those claims remain unverified. County officials acknowledged the incident but downplayed its severity. A statement from the St. Joseph County Council confirmed a breach involving a third-party virtual faxing system, which was identified and contained earlier this week. While some sensitive files may have been exposed, officials emphasized that no other county servers or systems were compromised beyond the faxing service. The county is working with vendors to assess the full scope of the incident. The City of South Bend, which operates separately from the county, reported no impact from the alleged breach. The motives behind the attack remain unclear, though Handala Hack’s ties to Iranian state-backed cyber operations suggest potential geopolitical or disruptive objectives. The incident highlights ongoing risks posed by third-party vulnerabilities in government infrastructure.

The City of St. Joseph suffered a ransomware-driven cyberattack in early June, crippling its network for weeks and potentially exposing personal data of ~11,000 residents, including records from police and health departments. Critical services (emails, phones, file access, payment systems) were paralyzed, forcing staff to rely on hotspots, personal devices, or outdated records. Police, fire, and emergency dispatch remained operational via contingency protocols, but public-facing operations (e.g., customer payments, business coordination) faced severe disruptions. The city spent over $1 million on cybersecurity upgrades (servers, firewalls, threat protection, MFA) and a $50,000 insurance deductible. While no evidence of data misuse was found, residents received free credit monitoring due to exposure risks. The attack also delayed public crime reports and caused long-term operational strain, with some processes still interrupted months later. A former staffer quit due to the chaos, citing stress from manual workarounds and security concerns over credit card transactions during the breach.