Florida's Pensacola city says cyber attack disrupted government phone lines, affected online services

The city of Pensacola in the U.S. state of Florida said it experienced a cyber security incident that affected the phone lines of several government departments.

 

In a recent announcement shared with the media, Pensacola city officials said the City is dealing with a “network security incident” that had affected the phone lines of a number of government departments. This, in return, had created delays in receiving service through the 311 Citizen Support system.

 

City officials confirmed that emergency phone numbers like 911 are working and can provide assistance to the residents of the city. Non-emergency numbers can also be used to contact the Pensacola Police Department and the city’s fire department.

 

City spokesperson Jason Wheeler said, “Both Pensacola International Airport and the Port of Pensacola are operating as normal. City email is also working.” He added that the City council’s meeting will be carried out as scheduled but will not be live-streamed.

 

“Unfortunately, this meeting will not be live-streamed. We plan to record it and post it at a later date. We appreciate the public’s understanding as we navigate these technical challenges. We will inform the public as soon as our systems are restored,” Wheeler added.

 

In another update, government officials said that the 311 Citizen Support system has been restored and residents can get their services on time. However, online bill payments for Pensacola Energy and the city’s sanitation services are yet to be restored.

 

D.C. Reeves, the Mayor of Pensacola City, confirmed that the city is working with law enforcement agencies and external cyber security experts to understand the nature and scope of the incident. He said it is too early to comment on whether any citizen’s sensitive personal data was compromised during the incident.

 

According to Mayor Reeves, the city is better prepared to handle a data security incident this time as it has implemented security measures in place following a similar network incident in 2019.

 

In 2019, the Maze ransomware group infiltrated the city’s internal network, encrypted its systems, and stole 33.2GB of data. The group later demanded a ransom of $1,000,000 for a decryptor.

 

The city worked with law enforcement agencies including the FBI to recover from the data security incident and implemented security measures to avoid similar incidents in the future. It is not known if the City decided to pay a ransom to the cyber crime group.