Cybersecurity incident knocks out crucial phone, email and map systems: City of Hamilton

The City of Hamilton says a cybersecurity incident has knocked out several city-run services, creating a noticeable disruption to business as usual throughout the city on Monday.

At public libraries, the website, phones, chat and email services were all down. While wifi was available, the computers many go to the library to get access to were also down.

It made for a quiet day at many libraries throughout the city.

Hamilton Transit was similarly impacted, with functions such as computer mapping systems, on-board announcements and phones being disrupted.

The City says it is working to rectify the outage and there is no word on when all services will be back up and running.

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Officials report that experts are actively responding to the incident to determine the cause and potential impacts.

“It’s very stressful when this happens. There is a lot going on in the background. They are trying to figure out where the attack came from and prevent any future movement within the network.” said cyber security expert Tom McIntyre.

Cyberattacks on businesses and governments have become a growing issue. Just last year, some hospitals in Ontario and the Toronto Library fell victim to ransomware attacks.

“It’s not even preventable anymore, hospitals, government. Everyone is vulnerable, you can put up a good defence, but you have to remember these people that are doing this, criminals that are doing this, it’s a full time job for them.” explained McIntyre.

The City maintains that it is working to restore all services, though at this time it has not provided a timeline nor explained the nature of the attack.

We are experiencing a City-wide phone and email disruption, which includes the Bus Check Info Line. At this time, 546-CITY remains operational. Staff are currently working to rectify the outage. We apologize for any inconvenience and will provide an update upon resolution. https://t.co/Cj69on2ZUb

— City of Hamilton (@cityofhamilton) February 25, 2024