After a virus caused Lauderdale County’s computer network to shut down, the system is back up and running after nearly two weeks.

Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun told the Board of Supervisors on Monday that all issues have been fixed, and no data was lost, compromised or stolen.

“Some software adjustments have been made and we’re going to further restrict access to the internet by employees,” Calhoun said. “We’re trying to stay ahead of the changes in technology that happen almost daily.

“We’re looking at how we’re going to store our data in a couple different ways. We’re going to try and figure out a better way to safeguard our data.”

Lauderdale County Administrator Chris Lafferty said last week that the system, which had been down since May 22, no county services were affected during the shutdown, Lafferty said. 

At the time of the report, the county was working to retrieve data during the shutdown.

“It’s just the cost of doing business in the 21st century,” Laffety said. “When it all shakes out, we’ll be looking at the way our servers allow access to the world.”

While no definite cause has been determined, Lafferty said the virus could have come from an online video from YouTube or Facebook.

East Mississippi Community College Local Area Networking instructor Brandon Sesser said these types of infections are not unusual.

Two ways to avoid infection are keeping software up to date and disabling tracking cookies on your browser, he said.

“Be careful what you click on,” Sesser said. “Just because you received an email from your boss doesn’t mean it’s coming from your boss… Don’t open an attachment from anybody that you know is not sending you an attachment, especially if it’s an executable file.