Cybersecurity Incident Response
Since Sunday, February 25, 2024, the City of Hamilton has been experiencing a cyber incident that has disabled some of our IT systems. The incident is a result of a ransomware attack.
Based on forensic analysis, at this time, the City has no evidence that people’s personal information or personal health information has been compromised as a result of the cyber incident, during which our systems were encrypted.
We want to assure the public that we take this matter very seriously. The City of Hamilton took swift action to investigate, protect systems and minimize impact on the community. We engaged a team of experts, insurers, legal counsel, and relevant authorities and are working diligently to restore the City’s system in a safe and secure manner.
A continued customer-centric approach
The City has been taking a thoughtful and intentional approach to its response, focused on best meeting the needs of the community. Despite the incident, the City has continued to deliver its critical programs and services.
With the incident contained and the delivery of essential core programs ongoing, the City is now largely focused on recovery, restoration, and rebuilding/ transformation.
Recovery: Prioritize, rationalize and prepare systems to be restored.
Restore: Return systems to their pre-incident state.
Rebuild/Transform: Upgrade, replace and enhance systems to be more resilient and improve customer service.
Throughout these phases, the City continues to prioritize critical systems, service continuity, and meeting the needs of the community. In some instances, the City is relying on short-to-mid-term mitigation solutions to limit service disruptions, including manual processes and interim or new technology solutions. The City will continue to make applications and associated services available as it is safe and secure to do so.
Building back better and stronger
The cybersecurity incident significantly affected the City’s complex technology infrastructure, that supports approximately 8,000 full time city employees, nearly 600,000 residents, and upwards of 7,000 business partners.
As the City continues to bring back applications, it is identifying opportunities to improve and strengthen systems and infrastructure and protect against future cyber incidents. Staff are assessing each application to determine whether it should be brought back to its pre-incident state, upgraded, or replaced to accelerate a transition to the City’s desired future state.
Here is an update on some city services which have recently come back online.
The [email protected] general inquiry email restored, so residents can email any non-urgent requests or general questions to the Customer Contact Centre team. The City receives more than14,000 askcity emails each year.
Prioritizing the customer call in experience through the Customer Contact Centre 905-546-CITY (2489). A new feature of the phone queue system advises callers of their number in the queue.
Processing Building Permit Applications: The City has resumed processing nearly 1,000 online building permit applications that were stalled due to the cyber incident, and enabled the restoration of the ProjectDox system. New building permit applications should still be submitted in person at City Hall, 3rd Floor, 71 Main Street West, Hamilton.
Bus Annunciator System: Providing transit commuters with next-stop announcements and onboard updates.
Real-time Bus Route Information: Option B: is now available through many third-party applications like Google and Transit. Thanks to the General Transit Feed System (GTFS), Transit customers can now view both the scheduled and real-time bus information, which will significantly improve the trip planning experience.
Restoration of GISNet: Internal GIS Services used by staff and a critical component of the City’s public service delivery in support of development processes, public health initiatives, transportation operations, and the delivery of water and wastewater services.
Visitation Rates Tracking at the Gage Park Tropical Greenhouse: Ensuring compliance with occupancy numbers through accurate and ongoing visitor tracking. When this system was down, staff manually checked attendance numbers at the facility to ensure compliance.
City job postings resumed on April 29, 2024, on a new platform with an enhanced user experience focused on making the application process easier for the applicant.
Coordinated service delivery for homeless-serving partner agencies: Support day-to-day operations for homeless-serving providers in the community through the Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS) database, which will ensure individuals and families accessing services are prioritized and referred to appropriate services.
Updates will be provided as new information become available. We appreciate the public’s patience and understanding during this time and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
