Dallas City Website and Police Department Page Recovering After Ransomware Attack
- Ransomware attack on May 3: Multiple city networks affected, with IT experts working to secure all impacted systems.
- No customer data leak detected: City officials assured that no billing data or personally identifiable information has been leaked from City systems or databases.
DALLAS – The City of Dallas’ website and the Dallas Police Department’s home page were officially restored Monday, May 8, after a May 3 ransomware attack had a significant impact on several city networks. City of Dallas IT professionals are still carefully recovering from the attack and working to secure all affected systems.
Bill Zielinski, Chief of Information and Technology Services for the City of Dallas, told the Public Safety Committee that police and fire response systems are a top priority. IT specialists are meticulously checking each department, location and device to ensure they are not infected with ransomware.
Zielinski also emphasized that the city’s 9-1-1 operators continue to answer and dispatch calls using backup procedures and the city’s public safety radio system. As the city’s IT staff and contracted specialists review individual devices and confirm their security, those devices will be gradually reconnected to the network. Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) functionality will be improved for the Dallas Police Department, Dallas Fire-Rescue and the 311 service.
In their most recent update, city officials assured residents that there is no indication at this time that any customer information, such as billing information or personally identifiable information (PII), has been leaked from any city systems or databases. However, if this situation changes, the city has committed to notifying potentially affected individuals with information and instructions.
Zielinski was limited in the specific details he could provide regarding the ongoing criminal investigation, emphasizing the importance of not impeding the investigation or exposing vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an attacker.
While the City is still dealing with outages and system delays, Zielinski stated that services will be restored as soon as possible once software, servers, and devices are checked to ensure they are not infected.
Officials have confirmed that the City’s social media accounts have not been compromised, and updates will continue to be provided via DallasCityNews.net.
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