After a recent “cyber incident” that closed North Miami City Hall for nearly a week, the city is still working to get things back in order.
On Sunday, August 4, a cybersecurity breach was discovered in North Miami, prompting authorities to close City Hall on Tuesday. It reopened Monday morning during regular business hours, but with limited services.
City Councilman Scott Galvin told the Miami Herald that while the threat was discovered on August 4, it’s possible the “threat actors” were in the system weeks earlier. Galvin said employees were hesitant to use their computers and unsure of which programs were safe to use.
“It’s a careful review of the evidence as they think long and hard about which systems can now be used,” he said.
While many services and operations remained operational last week, some services continue to experience delays or changes.
Residents are currently unable to pay their utility bills online and must pay in person in cash or money order. Galvin said that given the situation, residents’ services will not be cut off even if payments are missed.
Passport services are also still not available.
Galvin said there may be delays in other processes as the city continues to investigate the extent of the cyberattack.
“With data, the world will be both before and after August 4,” he said. “If you come in and apply for a new building permit, that’s great. It will be digital, just like everything else, but we won’t be able to look back to before August 4 yet.”
Although there were never any outages in emergency services, Galvin said the police’s computer-controlled vehicle systems still did not work, so officers had to rely on radio to communicate addresses.
Galvin said the city is still unsure which departments were affected by the data breach. The city did not respond to an interview request about the incident and referred the Herald to the city’s website for updated information.
Mayor Alix Desulme had previously told the Herald that his personal information was the target of the attack. This statement was confirmed in a recent Axios report. CBS Miami reported that Desulme’s passport details, bank statements, credit card information and personal pictures were compromised.
Galvin, who does not yet know whether his personal information was hacked, said it will take weeks for everything to return to normal.
“We are committed to serving our citizens and will continue to provide updates as we work toward a full recovery,” the city said in a statement Friday.
