The City of Cleveland is struggling to restore certain services that have been affected by a cyberattack earlier this week.
The incident was disclosed on June 10, when the city announced that it took its systems offline as a containment measure.
“City Hall and Erieview are closed today June 10, except for essential staff, as we investigate a cyber incident. We have shut down affected systems to secure and restore services. Emergency services and utilities are not affected. Updates will be provided as available,” the city announced on X.
While Cleveland re-opened both the City Hall and its satellite offices at Erieview Plaza on Wednesday, it decided to close the City Hall again for the remainder of the week, as it continues to work on restoring shut-down systems.
“City services will not be available to the public at City Hall tomorrow, June 13 and Friday, June 14. City Hall will be open for employees,” Cleveland announced, advising the public to wait for further information on when services will be restored.
The city said it has been working with key partners to investigate the nature and scope of the incident, noting that taxpayer information held by the CCA and customer information held by Public Utilities are confirmed to have not been affected by the attack.
Cleveland also announced that basic city services, including emergency services, public works, public utilities, airport, and online payments were not affected. The Municipal Courts continued to function normally, as they are on a different system.
“Residents are encouraged to use online services or call 311 for more information. We ask for the public’s patience as the city continues its effort to restore system access and broadly recover from the incident in a safe and strategic manner,” Cleveland said.
The city shared no information on the identity of the attackers or on whether file-encrypting ransomware was used, albeit taking systems offline is the typical response to a ransomware attack.
SecurityWeek has not seen any ransomware or extortion group claiming responsibility for the incident.
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