<p>Welcome to Volume 7, Issue 1 of the <i>International Journal of Rural Criminology!</i> It seems like a very long journey from the previous issue to this one. One reason is that in March 2022, it was still unknown if various conferences, such as the European Society of Criminology, would be held on-site or once again by online means of communication. Then, a cyber- attack in July 2022 caused The Ohio State University Libraries - who host the Journal's web presence and all the 'behind the scenes' functionality - to shut down their servers, including those that manage all of the journals in their digital library. Immediately, IT personnel at OSU worked diligently to bring everything back up online, giving priority to the most frequent users of the library system, namely staff and students accessing library resources of various kinds for teaching and class assignments. One day short of a month's hiatus, IT eventually restored the online status of all its journals, including IJRC. During this time, not a single manuscript associated with this special issue on rural policing could be accessed from the website, processed for review, edited and readied for publication.</p>