The Hidalgo County Adult Probation Center is offline after their computer system was infected with ransomware over the weekend. 

Staff is unable to access emails, and the county is working to recover any affected files. 

“We're still in the process of retrieving everything,” Hidalgo County IT Director Daniel Salinas said. “It is a lengthy process and very technical process, and at this point we really just can't divulge the steps taken to do that.”

Cybersecurity experts say it's easy for a system to be infected with ransomware. It usually happens when you open a phishing email or link. The hacker then encrypts the files, making them unusable. 

Those criminals then demand money to return the data. 

Cybersecurity consultant Shawn Neely advises the public to be suspicious of any email you get, especially if it’s from someone you do not know. Another red flag is if the email has misspellings or asks you to click on a link.

Watch the video above for the full story.