Some Florida birth and death certificates no longer available after cyberattack

Many Florida residents are dealing with delays when it comes to getting civil certificates. If you’re getting married, having a child or burying a loved one in the state, you could run into some problems. The process to get that certificate is currently stalled. Officials with the Florida Department of Health told WESH 2 they may have been hacked and called it a “potential cyber incident.” This is impacting the notarization system, which includes birth, marriage and death certificates. Gaye Campbell is mourning the recent loss of her husband, Don. “Don was a fine man. He loved his country and was a patriot,” Campbell said. She was unable to move forward with his arrangements and cannot obtain his death certificate. “Everything is stalled, and I have no closure,” Campbell said. Several funeral homes across Central Florida told WESH 2 this has been an issue since June 28. “So his death certificate was 95% complete, and then everything crashed. So I can’t get one until the system is fixed,” Campbell said. Funeral homes in Florida require death certificates from the state Department of Health before they can arrange a cremation or burial. Campbell is also waiting to get her husband’s ashes. “I want his spirit back and I want his ashes. I want to be close to him again,” she said. The Florida Morticians Association wrote on its website, “Many of you have experienced an outage of the EDRS system that has greatly impacted our normal use of completing and submitting death certificates and burial permits in a timely manner.” The statement continued, “With this in mind, we must now use the long form and three-page burial permit. We bring the death certificate to the doctor’s office for signature and bring the signed death certificate along with the burial permit to the health department.” The Florida Morticians Association said it hopes this disruption is short-lived. In the meantime, it says, all of Florida must conduct business this way. There is no indication from the Department of Health when the system will be back up and running.