St. Paul Officials: “We are the Victim of a Serious Crime”

(KNSI) – The City of St. Paul has been trying desperately to fend off a cyberattack since Friday.

The public first began to notice Monday, as city services were taken offline. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said at a Tuesday news conference that the move was planned. “Yesterday, we initiated a full shutdown of our information systems as a defensive measure to contain the threat. The citywide service outages we’ve experienced are all the results of intentional, proactive actions taken to isolate and secure our systems.”

Officials say the issue is limited to city services at this time. They didn’t elaborate on whether the hacker had made any demands. Governor Tim Walz activated the National Guard to assist the city on Tuesday morning. Other state resources, along with the federal government, have been brought in to help.

Chief Information Officer Jaime Wascalus talked about the gravity of the situation. “We are the victims of a serious crime. In response, we have mobilized local, state, and federal partners to support our investigation and response efforts. Our teams are working around the clock to understand the full scope of the situation and our plan for the restoration of services.”

It is impossible to pay bills or use wi-fi in public buildings, among several other tasks taken for granted in day-to-day life. Officials say the move is working, as they believe the hacker is being isolated to a small portion of the city’s computer grid.

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