Anne Arundel County hit by cyberattack in late August

Anne Arundel County officials said Thursday that they are investigating after they “detected irregular activity” on some systems within the county’s computer network on Aug. 28.

An “unauthorized actor” successfully accessed a “limited number” of systems within the county network and copied “certain files” from them, according to a news release from County Executive Steuart Pittman’s office.

County officials said they were reviewing the files involved to determine their contents. Based on the review, if the information in the files is associated with any individuals, the county said, it will notify the affected people.

Pittman’s office did not specify what kind of files were copied or how large the breach was. The attack did not interfere with any county operations, and officials said there is no anticipated impact on essential services.

There is “no indication” that the files have been used to commit consumer fraud or identity theft, or that the attack is related to “any previous cyber event,” the release said.

Anne Arundel County said it notified federal law enforcement about the Aug. 28 breach “and is coordinating its response efforts.”

The ransomware.live website, an open-source effort to track such attacks, reported that a hacker group claimed to have copied files from Anne Arundel County, including “medical faxes,” “HR memos,” “tax forms and bank data” and more.

The Banner could not independently verify those claims, and county officials did not immediately answer questions about the claim.

A cyberattack at Luminis Health, which operates the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, was reported Sept. 2. Luminis said all of its systems were back online on Oct. 9.

Separately, Anne Arundel County was a victim of a cyberattack between Jan. 28 and Feb. 22, 2025, in which “certain files within the network were accessed or downloaded without authorization.” Officials will notify affected individuals from that incident beginning Oct. 19.