LICKING COUNTY Officials in Licking County tell 10TV that ransom was demanded Attack.Ransom for an IT hack that impacted the county 's phone and computer systems . A computer virus shut down more than a thousand computers inside the Licking county government center late Tuesday . A county commissioner says that the virus demanded a payment Attack.Ransom in Bitcoin for the county to regain control of their systems . Officials declined to specify the amount of money that was requested Attack.Ransom . The county said its IT department discovered the problem when some files would n't open . As a precaution , it shut the system down and that 's when technicians discovered it was a virus known as ransomware . County business continues , despite the computer shut down , although county employees are having to do much of their work on paper .