Network Disruption Affects City – Officials Assure that Public Safety Services Remain Fully Operational

The office of New Britain Mayor Bobby Sanchez is assuring residents that, “New Britain’s Public Safety operations are functioning as they should and the City will continue to provide services,” after what city officials are calling, “a network disruption affecting certain City systems.”

WFSB reported that the incident is, “a suspected cyber attack on City Hall.”

Alisha Rayner, Mayor Sanchez’ Director of Operations and Communications, said that,

The City of New Britain is currently responding to a network disruption affecting certain City systems. Upon identifying the issue, the City immediately activated its incident response protocols and is working closely with state and federal authorities to assess the scope and impact of the incident.

We have engaged additional technical resources to support this effort and to ensure our systems are secured and restored as quickly and safely as possible. At this time, the investigation is ongoing.

Residents should know that New Britain’s Public Safety operations are functioning as they should and the City will continue to provide services during this disruption.

The City takes the security of its systems and the protection of information very seriously. As this is an active response and assessment, we will provide updates as appropriate and as more information becomes available.

In his update on January 30th, Mayor Sanchez said that,

I can confirm that the City of New Britain was the victim of a ransomware attack. We are actively investigating the incident and working carefully to restore affected systems. Our teams are working around the clock, and based on current assessments, we anticipate beginning to bring certain systems back online this weekend, with continued progress thereafter.

The City takes this matter extremely seriously. We are working closely with state and federal authorities and cybersecurity professionals to secure our systems, protect information, and ensure a full and responsible recovery.