City of Cleveland shuts down IT systems after cyberattack

The City of Cleveland, Ohio, is currently dealing with a cyberattack that has forced it to take citizen-facing services offline, including the public offices and facilities at Erieview and the City Hall.

With a metropolitan area population of over 2 million people, Cleveland is a vital healthcare, manufacturing, finance, logistics, education, and technological hub and the most significant economic center in Ohio.

The disruption was first disclosed yesterday when the City's authorities warned that public services were reduced to essential operations due to a cyber incident

A status update provided earlier today via a thread on X explains that the incident is still being investigated with the help of third-party experts. At the same time, the City Hall and Erieview will remain closed for a second day.

The investigation so far has confirmed that taxpayer information held by the CAA and custom information held by public utility services was not accessed by the hackers.

The update also notes that essential services concerning emergency services (911, police, fire), works, utilities, healthcare (EMS), and airport travel (Cleveland Hopkins and Burke Lakefront) have not been impacted by the cyber incident.

The City's authorities promised to provide updates as soon as the ongoing investigation produced results, and concerned citizens are advised to call 311 for more information.

At the time of writing, no ransomware groups have claimed responsibility for the attack on the City of Cleveland, and it is unclear what exactly has happened.

Local media reported that Mayor Justin Bibb referred to the incident as a breach, while the City's IT commissioner, Kim Roy Wilson, stated that they had detected abnormal activity in the City's IT environment.

Wilson told the media that it's essential to withhold details at this point so as not to risk hampering the ongoing investigation.

The commissioner also stated that citizens needing critical documents or other services from impacted departments must be patient.