“Cyber ​​incident” delays marriage, birth and death certificates in Florida

Couples in Florida don’t have to worry about getting to church on time because a “potential cyber incident” has halted the process of obtaining civil status documents.

As Fox 25 Orlando reported, the Florida Department of Health’s online certification system experienced a “potential cyber incident” that caused “temporary outages of the vital statistics system.”

The system includes birth, marriage and death certificates.

Terry Wright, owner of Wright & Young Funeral Home, told the Washington Post that he had to go back to “the old way” of issuing death certificates in an analogue manner.

“It slows down the process.”

Still, his Miami funeral home doesn’t have a backlog of bodies, he said, because for burials and interments before the final death certificate is presented, there is a solution: getting a doctor’s approval. That’s not the case for cremations, but he said those bodies aren’t overcrowded in a crematorium freezer – at least not right now.

However, some families were left behind because they did not receive reimbursement for insurance premiums or access to pensions and other financial accounts, Wright said.

“Nobody wants to decide their final rights or finances without a final death certificate,” he said.

Wright said the population statistics problem began on June 27, and the system was still down as of Saturday afternoon.

“As usual, the department is coordinating its work with law enforcement and all relevant stakeholders,” the Department of Health told Fox 35.

“All affected parties will be notified once a comprehensive assessment of the situation has been completed.”