Franklin County commissioners voted Tuesday to reallocate nearly $60,000 to the IT budget to cover the cost of the insurance deductible and expenses not covered by insurance for a Feb. 6 cyberattack on the county’s computer network.

The insurance deductible was $50,000 and uncovered expenses were $9,681.81, county Administrator Amy Bernard said. The expense left the IT budget in the red, she said.

The county’s system was briefly disrupted during the “sophisticated ransomware attack,” Bernard said in February.

As a result of the county’s previous investments in backup technology, the county’s IT department was able to restore impacted systems quickly with no permanent data loss and minimal disruption to operations. All functionality was restored in less than 24 hours, she said.

When county officials first learned of this incident, they immediately contacted their cyber insurance carrier for assistance and were referred to third-party technical specialists to oversee “our response and ensure we followed best practices to re-secure our systems,” Bernard previously wrote in an email.

They also notified law enforcement and engaged third-party specialists to conduct a thorough forensic investigation. Once the investigation concluded, they acted on recommendations they received to minimize the chance of a similar incident occurring in the future.”

Malcolm Ulmer of the Maine County Commissioners Association Risk Pool previously denied the Sun Journal’s Freedom of Access Act request earlier this year to release what the insurance company paid for the cyberattack. At the time, the investigation was ongoing.

Bernard said Tuesday that she has not heard from Ulmer to see how much was paid out.