St. Paul cyberattack: Investigation continues, city systems still down

St. Paul cyberattack: Mayor provides update

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter provided an update after the city was hit with a cyberattack last Friday.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said the city is still working to get its systems back up after a cyberattack. 

St. Paul cyberattack

What they're saying:

Carter said that the city was able to get the phone system for the city back up and running again, but most of the city operations are being done manually as the city's IT services work to get systems running again. 

The mayor was not able to give specifics of the investigation into the cyberattack, but said the investigation continues.  

Residents of St. Paul not financially tied to the city has a "very low" risk of having their data breached, Carter said. He continued to say that the city maintains "very little" data of its residents.

St. Paul's 911 services are able to continue despite the outages due to the cyberattack, the mayor said. 

Carter said he doesn't have specific information indicating that city employee's private information or employee payroll information has been accessed illegally, but the city has not been able to completely rule that out. 

The mayor says there is no specific timeline of when all city systems will be back up and running. But it is its priority to do so safely and securely. 

Local perspective:

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter issued a state of emergency, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz activated the Minnesota National Guard after a "deliberate, coordinated digital attack" on the City of St. Paul's information infrastructure last Friday, Carter said Tuesday. 

The city shutdown their information systems as a defensive measure to contain the threat. This resulted in the internet being down in city buildings; the St. Paul library’s collection management systems are down, as is network access for internal applications. Carter said these were intentional, proactive decisions taken to isolate and secure city systems.

Mayor Carter says St. Paul’s emergency services and 911 operations center remain intact. Libraries are still open, recreation centers remain open, but wireless internet in those buildings has been temporarily shut off. 

St. Paul police, fire departments address cyberattack [RAW]

The St. Paul Police Department and the St. Paul Fire Department assured the public that 911 services are uninterrupted and that the city has developed "workarounds" for departments impacted by the hack.