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.
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.
