The City of Richardson in Dallas said it recently experienced a major cyber attack that forced city officials to take its network offline to minimise the impact of the attack.

In a data security incident notice posted on its official website, the City said that in the early hours of September 25, an unauthorised third party gained access to its internal network and encrypted certain files. The City’s automated security systems immediately responded to the incident and contained the unauthorised access.

City officials said an investigation has been launched, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident. Also, as a precaution, the City has decided to take its network offline.

“While access to internal information is limited, essential services such as emergency response, online payments, solid waste service requests, and other customer portals remain available,” the City added.

“The threat of these incidents is a reality that all cities face, and it is something we have been diligently preparing for. At this point, our security protocols seem to have successfully minimised the impact, and we hope this continues,” said City Manager Don Magner.

“We are doing everything in our power to restore our systems as quickly as possible and will identify resources necessary to assist affected individuals, if necessary,” he added.

In a separate notice, City officials said that the restoration work has already started, but the online customer portal in the City’s website is yet to be restored.

“Restoration experts from across the country are being utilised and working with our IT teams to methodically restore our systems in the safest and fastest way possible,” Magner said. “This approach takes time and must be followed in a precise sequence to ensure the systems are brought back online with the highest assurance that they are free of corrupted data.”

The City has notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security  and is working with the agencies to resolve the impact of the cyber attack at the earliest.

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