ResourcesTexas Breach Tracker › Harris County Juvenile Probation Dept.
Municipal Ransomware Remediated

Harris County Juvenile Probation Dept.
Breach Analysis

Harris County Juvenile Probation Department suffered a ransomware attack in January 2024 affecting case management systems for approximately 12,500 juvenile offenders. CJIS-connected data exposure triggered FBI notification.

Incident Date
2024-01-18
Records Exposed
12,500
Attack Type
Ransomware
Threat Actor
Unconfirmed

How they got in

RDP brute-force attack against an unpatched, internet-facing server succeeded in gaining foothold. Lateral movement across flat county network gave attacker access to juvenile case management database before encryption.

Sentinel / Fortress / Command coverage

Sentinel RDP brute-force detection: failed login threshold alert triggers automatic IP block and SOC notification
Fortress Vulnerability management: internet-facing RDP server flagged as critical exposure; patched and access restricted to VPN-only within remediation SLA
Command CJIS compliance review identifies exposed RDP as CJIS SP §5.5 violation; remediation required before next audit cycle

Sentinel ($89/ep/mo) — 24/7 SOC + SIEM. Fortress ($109/ep/mo) — Sentinel + EDR management + vulnerability management. Command ($129/ep/mo) — Fortress + vCISO + compliance mapping + IR plan. See full tier comparison →

Regulatory exposure

Regime Standard / Citation Gap Identified
CJIS CJIS SP v6.0 §5.5 Access control — RDP directly internet-accessible violates CJIS remote access requirements
CJIS CJIS SP v6.0 §5.3 Incident response — CJIS incident reporting to FBI CJIS Division required within defined timeline
TDPA Tex. B&C Code §521.053 Juvenile PII breach notification obligations triggered

5-point hardening list

CoreRecon cites verifiable public sources only. No speculation on unverified attribution is published. Threat actor attribution appears only where publicly confirmed by law enforcement or the organization.

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