GoKawiilWhat just happened? A California city has declared a state of emergency after malicious software infected systems supporting 911 routing, police and fire dispatch, records, and other municipal services. Suisun City shut down its entire IT network to contain the threat and preserve evidence, but officials say emergency calls and responses have continued without interruption.
The incident began at around 5:45am on Friday, August 7, according to the city's incident page. Suisun City, a community of approximately 30,000 people located 55 miles north of San Francisco, declared the emergency at a special council meeting the following morning.
The designation allows the city to quickly access emergency support and seek reimbursement for recovery costs. Its emergency operations center has been activated, while the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and California Governor's Office of Emergency Services are helping with the investigation and restoration work.
Suisun City's IT system is designed to shut down automatically when it detects an intruder, public information officer Michael Elm told KQED.
Dispatchers switched to the Solano County dispatch center, keeping 911 calls moving even as internal and online city operations went dark.
"From a public safety standpoint, there's no threat to the public at this time," Elm said.
For residents, the main effect is currently an inability to use certain online services, including paying water bills and processing permits. There's no estimated restoration time because every network function must be inspected and cleared before it can return.
Despite initial appearances, officials haven't identified the malicious software as ransomware. They have yet to name a suspected attacker or say whether any information was stolen.
Smaller municipalities have become tempting targets of hackers because they operate essential services without the budgets of major agencies. Earlier this year, Foster City declared an emergency after ransomware took services offline for more than a week. In February, nearby Pittsburg lost almost $1 million in a phishing scam, though more than half was recovered.
The incident arrives as concern about attacks on local infrastructure increase. Federal agencies recently warned that hackers had used remote-access software to compromise water and wastewater systems in several states. Thirty Minnesota systems were affected in July, causing water levels to drop before backup controls intervened.
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