CRIME & COURTS

SLED Investigating ‘Internet Outage’ in Spartanburg County

Cybersecurity unit responds to breach-plagued county network.

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by ANDREW FANCHER

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Spartanburg County’s government network, plagued by repeated cybersecurity attacks, is now experiencing what officials are calling an “internet outage” – with agents from the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) having been requested to investigate.

While few details have been shared officially, a SLED spokesperson told FITSNews the agency’s S.C. Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (SCCIC) unit was “assisting Spartanburg County” regarding the thinly detailed “internet outage.”

The SLED spokesperson noted SCCIC’s investigation was “active and ongoing.”

The SCCIC, which does not typically respond to routine internet outages, is a SLED-sponsored initiative with a mission of providing “critical services” and “cybersecurity intelligence” to public and private organizations facing far more serious threats.

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Whether Spartanburg County is the subject of yet another serious cybersecurity incident, information provided to FITSNews indicates the “outage” was being felt by deputies with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) as early as Wednesday afternoon.

FITSNews was further provided text messages from an SCSO sergeant noting that at least one department was unable to check the status of active warrants, with the sergeant committing into writing that systems were “still down” as of Friday morning.

Regardless of the origin, extent and duration of this particular “outage,” this is not the first time FITSNews has reported on cyberattacks targeting the chronically embattled Upstate South Carolina county.

As we exclusively reported in August 2025, county government employees described what they referred to at the time as “deliberate attacks” from an unknown source – providing dozens of internal emails detailing a network subject to near-daily… outages.

The county’s cybersecurity troubles stretch back further still. In April 2023, sources indicate the county was subject to an “overnight attack,” purportedly born from a corrupted flash drive, that spread across the county network and encrypted countless files with a .medusa extension.

Millions of dollars in recovery efforts later, the county’s network troubles appear without end.

This story may be updated.

Write to Andrew Fancher at andy@fitsnews.com.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Andrew Fancher at FITSNews.

Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy Award–winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. He joined FITSNews in 2023 after leaving an NBC affiliate, where he served as on-air talent. His reporting focuses on public corruption in South Carolina, with an emphasis on law enforcement misconduct and abuse of power.

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