Illustration by Jessica Turner.
Update (6:30 a.m. May 5): Information about how the cyber attack is affecting non-emergency city services has been added.
A ransomware attack has shut down websites of key services in Dallas and paused court cases.
A group called Royal is responsible for the attack, launched Wednesday morning, the city said in an update posted online. As a result, the City of Dallas, Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue websites were unavailable as of Thursday. Courts were closed Wednesday and Thursday.
“While the source of the outage is still under investigation, I am optimistic that the risk is contained,” City Manager T.C. Broadnax said in a statement. “For those departments affected, emergency plans prepared and practiced in advance are paying off.”
Police and fire services are unaffected, the city said. Calls to 911 and 311 are still being answered, though non-emergency 311 requests may be delayed.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia issued a statement, saying, “police operations have been significantly impacted by the outage.” Specifically, computer-assisted dispatch, the field-based reporting system, internal share drives and internal applications for personnel matters have all been affected.
But Garcia echoed the updates from the city, saying that “police response continues across the city.”
While safety issues are being addressed, some non-emergency services have been affected. Development Services, permitting, Public Works and zoning departments at the city can’t receive payments or issue permits.
The city’s Information & Technology Services and vendors isolated the issue, as of 4 p.m. Thursday, and they continue to gradually restore service. Chief Information Officer William Zielinski is expected to brief the Public Safety Committee on May 8.
Royal is also behind the cyber attack in November that left the Dallas Central Appraisal District website down for months, The Dallas Morning News reported.
