City’s website taken down briefly amid cybersecurity attack

The City of Hamilton’s website was down on Sunday, two weeks after an ongoing cybersecurity breach was first discovered.

The outage “was not a result of a new cybersecurity event,” the city said in a release early Sunday evening, but because of “precautionary system changes made by city staff in response to the ongoing cybersecurity incident.”

“City staff are working quickly to rectify it and bring the website back online in a timely fashion,” the Sunday release reads. As of 7 p.m., the site was back online.

For weeks, municipal phone systems, electronic pay options and many web-based services have been inoperative as a result of a ransomware attack on Hamilton’s IT network.

The website is an important source of information for people to find out about the cyberattack and affected services.

“We recognize this issue, compounded with the current cybersecurity incident, is frustrating,’’ the city wrote in a release Sunday morning. The city’s customer contact centre at 546-CITY remains functional.

With the city website and other phone systems down, it remained one of few options for residents to access information.

“We ask for the public’s patience while the team triages phone calls,’’ the release said.

Hackers disrupt municipal operations

The cyber attack was initially flagged on Feb. 25, and has affected many operations, including municipal phone lines to transit, emergency services, building permits and public health.

The city is also temporarily out roughly $36 million in tax revenue due to delayed pre-authorized payments from residents, which represent about a third of the city’s tax accounts, staff told The Spectator.

The outage also prevented the planned start of registration last week for popular spring recreation programs, like swimming lessons, sports and fitness and seniors programming. The city initially paused registration, and has since said it is working on a plan that would allow programming to begin as planned on April 2.

City manager Marnie Cluckie has said staff and cybersecurity consultants don’t know how long the recovery will take. The city said it recognizes Sunday’s outage “may have caused some concern” and apologized for the inconvenience.

The city continues to grapple with the cybersecurity incident’s effects.

“Unfortunately, some other disruptions may be felt before we reach full restoration,” the release reads.