Union County extends GIS contract after cyberattack recovery push

Union County commissioners voted Tuesday to extend Michael Baker International’s contract so the Pittsburgh-based firm could keep assisting the county’s Geographic Information Systems department while recovery from last year’s cyberattack continued.

The decision kept outside technical help in place for the maps and data that sit behind daily county work, including parcel information, land records, planning support and other location-based records residents and staff use to answer property questions and process county business. In practical terms, GIS is part of the machinery that keeps property maps current and helps local offices stay aligned when people ask where a lot begins, how a parcel is identified or what data belongs in a public record.

The extension also showed Union County was still dealing with the consequences of the ransomware incident officials first detected on March 13, 2025. County leaders later determined that cyber criminals had accessed and taken some data, then started a broader review of what information may have been affected. Keeping Michael Baker International involved suggests the county still needed continuity on the technical side rather than a clean break and a new vendor during recovery.

That matters because GIS touches more than just maps on a screen. If the county’s spatial data is delayed, incomplete or still being rebuilt, residents can feel it in property records, tax parcels and the accuracy of land information used by county offices. It can also affect how quickly staff can answer questions tied to locations, boundaries and planning decisions, especially when systems still carry the scars of a cyberattack.

Union County’s next test is not simply whether contractors are still involved, but what has actually been fixed inside the county’s GIS environment and what vulnerabilities remain under review. Commissioners will need to show when the county has moved from emergency recovery to normal operations, with stable mapping data, reliable public access to records and fewer dependencies on outside help. Until then, Tuesday’s vote made clear that the county’s cyber recovery is still an active budget item and an active public issue.