Nearly three weeks after many of its systems were knocked out Attack.Ransom by a complex ransomware virus , Alaska ’ s Matanuska-Susitna Borough has restored most of its phone system , part of its geospatial information system and the online portal on which residents can pay their looming property-tax bills . But the borough , home to about 106,000 people outside Anchorage , still has many services to restore , prompting its elected officials last week to approve a disaster declaration in the cyberattack ’ s wake . The declaration could make the borough eligible for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency . Meanwhile , local government systems are slowly blinking back online . In its most recent updates , the borough says it ’ s restored departments ’ phone servers and that full email service is expected within a week . But other systems are still being rebuilt after the borough ’ s encounter Attack.Ransom with the ransomware known as BitPaymer , which locked down systems ranging from main file servers to the card-swipe mechanisms that control doors in government buildings . BitPaymer is a complex cocktail of malware that enters a targeted system through a Trojan horse , then lies dormant until it ’ s noticed and authorized users attempt to remove it , at which point it locks up the system with a demand for a sum of money Attack.Ransom payable in bitcoin . “ All of the pieces of this are the absolute worst in the world , and they have all been combined together and put on us at one time , ” borough IT Director Eric Wyatt says in a recent YouTube video about the response to the cyberattack . In the case of Mat-Su , as the borough is known to residents , Wyatt has said the Trojan component likely arrived as early as May 3 , more than two months before an attempted anti-virus sweep triggered the ransom demand Attack.Ransom . According to evidence found during the initial investigation of the attack , Mat-Su was at least the 210th victim of the BitPaymer package since it was first unleashed in June 2017 . This week , it possibly found its latest victim in the Professional Golfers Association , employees of which found themselves locked out of their systems on the eve of the prestigious PGA Championship . According to the cybersecurity research website BleepingComputer , the attack on the PGA resembles the one that hit Mat-Su . There ’ s no apparent timeline for when all of Mat-Su ’ s systems will be back to normal , though Wyatt says in his video update that the borough is receiving assistance from at least 20 other organizations , including tech vendors and the FBI . But the restoration of property tax payments on Aug. 2 came just in time : homeowners are required to pay half their 2018 tax bills by Aug. 15 , and as a borough press release states , “ there is traditionally a very long line for making payments in person . ”