An alleged ransomware attack that hit the City of Dallas on Wednesday is still affecting many of the municipality’s services and departments.
As of 2 p.m. Friday, the City website and the Dallas Police Department website are still not functioning.
The City has posted a message on the site that reads, “The City is experiencing a service outage and is working to restore services.” The page then directs users to the City’s Twitter account for updates.
Meanwhile, the DPD website is down entirely.
On Thursday morning, the City said the attack was initiated by a group called “Royal.”
The Dallas Express contacted the City for an update on the situation and was directed to a statement released at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
“Services to residents continue with some delays and disruption due to the outage,” the City said, adding that its Information Technology department “isolated the issue and is gradually restoring service prioritizing public safety and resident-facing departments.”
The City also provided the following details on specific municipal departments:
- Courts are closed, and cases will be reset.
- Dallas Water Utilities is unable to process payments.
- Code Compliance Services’ responses to service requests “may be delayed.”
- Dallas Animal Services’ responses to non-emergency requests “is delayed.”
- Vital Statistics is issuing records “with limited capacity.”
The City added that DPD and Dallas Fire-Rescue services are continuing “as usual,” and 311 and 911 calls “continue to be received and dispatched.”
In an evening update on the day of the attack, the City said services to residents would continue “with minimal disruption.”
City of Dallas public information officer Jenna Carpenter told The Dallas Express that Chief Information Officer William Zielinski will brief the City Council Public Safety Committee on Monday regarding the attack.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia told WFAA that the police department has “been significantly impacted by the outage.”
“We want to ensure the public, even with these internal difficulties, police response continues across the city,” he said. “Regardless of the uphill battles, our men and women will always answer calls for service.”
