The Advocate sought the ransom demand Attack.Ransom amount with a public records request of the Licking County Commissioners . Licking County Prosecutor Bill Hayes provided The Advocate the information Monday . A computer virus discovered Jan 31 caused Licking County government to shut down about 1,000 computers and its phone systems to prevent the virus from spreading , protect data and preserve evidence . The FBI and Bureau of Criminal Investigation were notified . County officials chose not to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom , and recovered data from its backups . By Feb 16 , most of the county system was back in service . Licking County Commissioner Tim Bubb said the price per bitcoin was about $ 1,100 when the computers were hacked , making the demand Attack.Ransom about $ 30,000 . As of 4 p.m. Monday , the value of one bitcoin was $ 1,235 . The computer hack cost the county more than $ 50,000 , Bubb said , which includes insurance and overtime , but he does not regret refusing to pay the demand Attack.Ransom . `` I 'm just kind of hard-nosed about that , '' Bubb said . `` I feel we were violated by people with criminal intent , and we do n't owe them anything . '' Bubb said people have asked him why the county did n't just pay the demand Attack.Ransom , but Bubb said it may not have been that simple . `` There was no guarantee that would have been the final price , or that they would have acted honorably . There 's a certain amount of unknown that would make you uneasy . '' Sylint , a cyber security firm assisting the county , was set to notify the state that the county 's computer system was virus-free , Bubb said . The state asked for the assurance before it hooked back up with the county .

The Advocate sought the ransom demand Attack.Ransom amount with a public records request of the Licking County Commissioners . Licking County Prosecutor Bill Hayes provided The Advocate the information Monday . A computer virus discovered Jan 31 caused Licking County government to shut down about 1,000 computers and its phone systems to prevent the virus from spreading , protect data and preserve evidence . The FBI and Bureau of Criminal Investigation were notified . County officials chose not to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom , and recovered data from its backups . By Feb 16 , most of the county system was back in service . Licking County Commissioner Tim Bubb said the price per bitcoin was about $ 1,100 when the computers were hacked , making the demand Attack.Ransom about $ 30,000 . As of 4 p.m. Monday , the value of one bitcoin was $ 1,235 . The computer hack cost the county more than $ 50,000 , Bubb said , which includes insurance and overtime , but he does not regret refusing to pay the demand Attack.Ransom . `` I 'm just kind of hard-nosed about that , '' Bubb said . `` I feel we were violated by people with criminal intent , and we do n't owe them anything . '' Bubb said people have asked him why the county did n't just pay the demand Attack.Ransom , but Bubb said it may not have been that simple . `` There was no guarantee that would have been the final price , or that they would have acted honorably . There 's a certain amount of unknown that would make you uneasy . '' Sylint , a cyber security firm assisting the county , was set to notify the state that the county 's computer system was virus-free , Bubb said . The state asked for the assurance before it hooked back up with the county .