Northwest Iowa — We up here in northwest Iowa seem to have lucked out again. A computer system that is used by some county recorders’ offices in Iowa was apparently hacked over the holidays and is still not completely back to normal.
The software, however, called “Cott Systems,” does not appear to be used by any of the four northwest Iowa county recorders’ offices, which use other software, such as “Eagle.”
Experts say the biggest remaining problem in counties that do use Cott Systems appears to be online access to real estate records. In some cases, we are told even the personnel in the recorders’ offices are not able to access those records. Not all of the counties that use Cott Systems were affected either. The hack seems to have only affected counties that have records hosted by Cott Systems.
Iowa county recorders’ offices issue birth certificates; licenses for boats, ATVs & snowmobiles; death certificates; hunting & fishing licenses, marriage certificates; and marriage licenses. They also deal with military records, real estate, and trade names.
