Another day, another cyber breach on public systems. This time, it hit Merrimack County government.
Some county services have been limited or offline for a couple of days due to a “network security incident” that apparently began Tuesday.
A county press statement gave few details about what happened. “Merrimack County recently became aware of a network security incident that caused a temporary disruption to some of our systems. We are actively working with third-party experts to assist in our investigation efforts, which remain ongoing and will likely take several days to complete,” it reads.
As of Thursday, the most visible effect was the Register of Deeds requiring documents, including those concerning recording ownership of property, to be submitted in paper form due to what it says is a “network outage.”
The incident apparently first disrupted law enforcement on Tuesday afternoon, when a county dispatcher notified officers in several jurisdictions that dispatchers could not access criminal data through the state’s IMC software. County officials say no emergency services were affected.
This is one of a number of incidents in which public-facing services in government agencies or private companies have had to go offline. Often, the issue is hackers who take down systems for political or terrorist reasons, or who demand a ransom to restore services. Notably, Hillsborough County took many systems offline during a 2025 cybersecurity investigation.
Earlier this year, reports came out that scores of water systems throughout the country, although none in New Hampshire, were hit with cyberattacks that apparently were coordinated by an outside government.
