McLeod County to replace legacy Code Red system after security incident; approves Regroup trial
December 18, 2025 | McLeod County, Minnesota
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The McLeod County Board on Dec. 16 authorized county staff to enter a one-year trial contract with Regroup to restore mass-notification services after staff were notified in early November that the county's legacy Code Red system had experienced an attempted intrusion.
County staff said the legacy Code Red product — now owned by OnSolve — was shut down after the incident and that federal authorities had withdrawn IPAWS certificates that previously allowed the county to send direct federal-style alerts. That change required the county to identify an alternative vendor able to provide mass-notification services including cell-phone geotargeted alerts, voice calls, emails and integration with dispatch.
Sheriff's office staff (Casey) told commissioners that staff reviewed multiple vendors and recommended Regroup at a significantly lower price than what the county would have paid OnSolve for 2026. Staff reported the OnSolve quote would have been $25,756.58; Regroup's proposal is $4,000 per year with an extra one-time $500 fee in year one for data migration. The board approved the one-year trial and authorized staff to sign the contract so the county can restore public and internal alerting capacity.
The board asked follow-up questions about Amber Alert integration and whether the new vendor could support federal IPAWS activation; staff said Amber Alert is a separate system but can be used with either OnSolve/IPAWS or other mass-notification vendors, and noted that because IPAWS certificates were removed from the legacy vendor the county must now coordinate through federal channels until the new vendor completes any required enrollment or certification steps.
Next steps: the Sheriff's Office and IT will finalize the contract, migrate contact data from the legacy system and report back to the board once the Regroup service is active.
Representative quote: "As soon as the breach was noticed by Code Red, they shut that system down immediately," Casey told the board when describing the November event.
County staff said the legacy Code Red product — now owned by OnSolve — was shut down after the incident and that federal authorities had withdrawn IPAWS certificates that previously allowed the county to send direct federal-style alerts. That change required the county to identify an alternative vendor able to provide mass-notification services including cell-phone geotargeted alerts, voice calls, emails and integration with dispatch.
Sheriff's office staff (Casey) told commissioners that staff reviewed multiple vendors and recommended Regroup at a significantly lower price than what the county would have paid OnSolve for 2026. Staff reported the OnSolve quote would have been $25,756.58; Regroup's proposal is $4,000 per year with an extra one-time $500 fee in year one for data migration. The board approved the one-year trial and authorized staff to sign the contract so the county can restore public and internal alerting capacity.
The board asked follow-up questions about Amber Alert integration and whether the new vendor could support federal IPAWS activation; staff said Amber Alert is a separate system but can be used with either OnSolve/IPAWS or other mass-notification vendors, and noted that because IPAWS certificates were removed from the legacy vendor the county must now coordinate through federal channels until the new vendor completes any required enrollment or certification steps.
Next steps: the Sheriff's Office and IT will finalize the contract, migrate contact data from the legacy system and report back to the board once the Regroup service is active.
Representative quote: "As soon as the breach was noticed by Code Red, they shut that system down immediately," Casey told the board when describing the November event.
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