Cybersecurity Update: Customer-centric approach drives restoration efforts

Hamilton, ON – The City of Hamilton is making further strides with its cyber incident recovery and restoration efforts. The City is maintaining momentum by safely and securely restoring additional services, and more are planned to return soon.

“I recognize the difficulties this situation continues to create and the frustrations it has caused. I want to thank all Hamiltonians for their ongoing support and understanding,” said Mayor Andrea Horwath. “The City is committed to an efficient and effective response to the cyber-attack, and we continue to take a customer-centric approach, focusing on the needs of our communities. We are progressively restoring services, with more to follow.”

Focused on a customer-centric approach, the most recent updates on restored services include:

• Bus Annunciator System: providing transit commuters with next-stop announcements and onboard updates. 
• Real-time Bus Route Information: available through third-party applications like Google and Transit. Trip planning in the Apple app will resume shortly, once enabled by Apple. 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. During the time when this system was down, staff were manually checking attendance numbers to the facility to ensure compliance.
• Processing Building Permit Applications: the City has resumed processing nearly 1,000 online building permit applications that were stalled due to the cyber incident, 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.
• Dental Services Scheduling: normal business processes for scheduling dental appointments have resumed. Regular dental programming for adults and seniors restarted on Friday, July 12, with services for children resuming on Monday, July 22.

Additionally, the City expects the following services to resume in the coming weeks:

• Coordinated Service Delivery for Homeless-Serving Partner Agencies: the Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS), a database that supports access, collection, and sharing of real-time client information so that individuals and families needing support are prioritized and referred to appropriate services.
• Bus Location and Scheduling Adherence and Monitoring: the Streets Computer-Aided Dispatch/Automatic Vehicle Location (CAD/AVL) system for monitoring the location and schedule adherence of buses for both safety and service. 

“We continue to make progress in the City’s recovery from the cyber incident, bringing back services at a steady pace,” said Marnie Cluckie, City Manager. “The people we serve in our community through City services remain at the centre of our restoration efforts. We have been able to deliver the majority of core programs and services throughout our ongoing response. 

As we move forward, we continue to consider both immediate needs and the future state of the City’s services. Our goal is to build back stronger than before. I am exceptionally proud of our staff, who are working tirelessly to support the community during our recovery and restoration.”

For the latest information, a full list of service disruptions, and answers to frequently asked questions, visit hamilton.ca/cyberincident.