On Nov. 8, 2022, the Dallas Central Appraisal District (DCAD) was the subject of a cyber-attack disrupting all computer operations, including all online services. In a Jan. 19 release from the district’s web page, the DCAD announced the re-publication of the original website.
“We appreciate the public’s patience as we have struggled through the process of rebuilding our computer operations,” the DCAD release stated. “Although, we have rebuilt most of our computer operations, there are some repairs still in progress. The Dallas CAD emails have been down since Nov. 8. If you sent an email to us after that date, please know that your email was not received and is not retrievable. Many of the email addresses listed in the ‘Contact U’s section of our website are not yet functioning or monitored but we are working to reactivate them soon.
“As our email addresses become available, it may take more time than usual for us to respond. So, if you have an immediate issue, please call our office rather than email us,” the release went on to say. “We thank you for your patience as we work to recover our computer systems and services. We continue working on our internal Mass Appraisal Records System (MARS) which is the software system for processing the majority of DCAD functions (appraised values, exemptions, ownerships, etc.).”
Early February was the target date, the DCAD said, when it anticipated things would be operational, where the DCAD began to process the voluminous documents that it received over the past couple of months. This included updating deeds for ownership changes, exemption applications, mailing address changes, values, property plats/splits and even Public Information - Open Record Requests, etc.
The DCAD also emphasized that at the time (Jan. 19), it was unable to perform these functions.
“If you filed documentation with our office (or filed deeds with the County Clerk) after Oct. 1, they have not been updated in our records, but these will be our priority once we are fully operational,” the release said. “We will work most documents in the order they were received by our office. We have updated our cyber security systems to minimize the likelihood of a cyber-attack in the future. At this time our main agenda, focus and resources are dedicated to return all of our systems to full operation as soon as possible. Again, thank you for your patience as we work to recover our computer systems and services due to this cyber-attack crisis.”