The Fulton County Board of Commissioners awarded a $10.2 million contract for an upgraded software platform to a firm that helped the county begin to recover from a ransomware attack.
County Manager Dick Anderson thanked CGI Technologies and Solutions during the Feb. 21 commission meeting for its work in helping the county get through the cyberattack .
“Had it not been for this vendor stepping into the breach, we would not have been able to run payroll,” Anderson said.
The Fairfax, Virginia, company was awarded the $10.2 million contract to upgrade the county’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application in a selection process that Purchasing Director Felicia Strong-Whitaker said began in March 2022.
County IT Director Kevin Kerrigan said this software is used to pay vendors, employees, and retirees, and daily interactions with the community. He called it the backbone of how the county conducts business.
He said a memo had been sent out right before the cyber incident occurred explaining the need to upgrade the county’s existing platform.
Kerrigan said CGI had some of the toughest security to protect the county’s data technical assets. The county’s IT system was hacked by the LockBit hacking group, which threatened to release personal data.
County officials said they did not pay a ransom demand from LockBit. Earlier this week, international law enforcement took down the hacking group’s computer system and made multiple arrests in Europe.
The new software platform will be fully operational by the third quarter of 2025, Kerrigan said.
A contract without competition was being awarded because it is an upgrade of its existing software. The county did issue a request for information to determine if the existing system would be upgraded, or if a new and different platform should be selected. The evaluation committee recommended upgrading the existing system.
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