Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone tells News 12 an investigation is ongoing into what the nature and scope of a possible cyber intrusion on the county's email and web apps.

"This is an issue - we see it happening all over the country - we see municipalities under attack and the problem is you have these criminal organizations that are relentless," Bellone says.

The county's 911 system was not affected and is still up and running, but email and web applications were taken offline after the IT department said they noticed unusual activity in the systems on Thursday.

Bellone says they are operating "old school," with a lot of it on paper and relying on partners like the police department.

Cybersecurity expert Adam Schwam says the cyber intrusion likely happened through an email because Suffolk County has pulled down their Outlook Mail and Office applications.

"Most likely they opened up something that they shouldn't - one of their computers got infected and now they're just very concerned across the board where it is," Schwam says.

County officials will not say if any data has been breached or if Suffolk experienced a ransomware attack. If the county did suffer a ransomware attack, personal information and a ransom to retrieve stolen data could eventually be in play.

The county executive's office says they are coordinating with the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Cyber Incident Response Team and other law enforcement.