Following a ransomware attack that compromised the information of about 300 people, Tarrant County’s top appraiser is visiting local government entities to give insight into how the Texas district will fix its security issues, according to KERA News.

In the first of those meetings, Chief Appraiser Joe Don Bobbitt met with the Watauga City Council May 13 to give an update on the attack. Bobbitt, who was named chief appraiser in December, told council members that Watauga was the first city on a “tour” the Tarrant Appraisal District (TAD) plans to make to hear concerns or comments.

“I was hired to improve relationships with entities and our taxpayers, and so that’s part of the reason why I’m here tonight,” Bobbitt said during the council meeting.

Bobbitt also visited the Keller City Council May 21 and spoke during Fort Worth ISD’s public comment section on May 28, though the board could not respond since his presentation was not an agenda item.

In a statement, he said he planned to visit with the Haslet City Council, Saginaw City Council, Haltom City Council June 10, and will visit Lakeside City Council June 13, and Dalworthington Gardens City Council June 20.

During his speech to the Watauga City Council, Bobbitt told council members the appraisal database was “not actually compromised” but hackers affiliated with the group Medusa did break into the district’s servers.

“Although 98 percent of its data was backed up properly, TAD staff found some things that were not backed up,” he said. “TAD’s board of directors authorized the district to buy new software and hardware to try to fix the security issues, with a goal to move to a cloud-hosted system.

“We have equipment and services and software that is 10-to-15 years old in most cases, and so a lot of things are out of firmware and is no longer supported, the machines are no longer supported,” Bobbitt added. “We’re well beyond the life of most equipment, and it was essentially a vulnerability.”

The ransomware attack was the second confirmed attack in recent years, with the first dating back to October 2022.

This is not the first year that security has been an issue at TAD. The district also had a data breach in 2022. Similar to this year, unpatched web servers were one of the reasons for the data breach two years ago.

Cal Wood, the district’s former head of information systems, was fired and former chief appraiser Jeff Law resigned following the breach. Wood was fired after a Fort Worth Star-Telegram inquiry revealed a recording that captured him telling coworkers he supported creating a “false narrative” for the media about TAD’s tech issues. Law resigned days later, following a vote of no confidence by Tarrant County commissioners.