A city spokesperson says investigators are trying to determine if any residents’ private information is affected.
BLAINE, Minn. — City officials in Blaine are investigating a “network security incident” that occurred in their system this week.
KARE 11 received information from a source alleging city employees were notified of the incident through a series of voicemail messages.
The messages told city employees to “shut down all computers” and to “keep this information confidential.”
KARE 11 reached out to city officials for comment and a city spokesperson sent the following statement:
Earlier this week, the City of Blaine experienced a network security incident, which is under investigation. Upon learning of this issue, we immediately initiated a thorough and detailed technical investigation with the assistance of external information technology experts. As part of our investigation, we have been working very closely with leading external cybersecurity professionals experienced in handling these types of incidents. This investigation is in its earliest stages and remains ongoing and is expected to take some time.
Our emergency services have not been interrupted and continue to remain operational. Our phone systems are up and running and staff continue to work at city hall and other city facilities. City services continue to be available to the public.
A city spokesperson says it’s too early in their investigation to determine whether any protected or sensitive information has been accessed.
Bryce Austin is a cybersecurity expert with TCE Strategy.
He says cities are often targeted by cyber criminals because cities collect a lot of private information from their residents, including names, addresses, and sometimes birthdates and social security numbers.
Austin said this information can be used by cyber criminals to orchestrate elaborate scams or to steal a person’s identity.
“The fact that their systems are still up and working makes me think that they haven’t been ransomwared. I’m guessing that someone has stolen sensitive data out of their systems, and they just became aware of it,” Austin says.
Austin isn’t directly connected to the situation in Blaine, but he has worked on similar cases involving other cities and large companies.
He says there is often a sense of secrecy when an organization falls victim to a cyber-attack.
“I wish we had an opposite take on that, because cities could learn from each other about how these things happen,” Austin says.
“For public institutions, my opinion is they have a responsibility to be as forthright as they can, because government is there to help its citizens and withholding information about who may have their data doesn’t put the city in a good light.”
A KARE 11 investigation in 2024 revealed the city of Blaine was scammed out of $1.5 million in a completely separate incident.
In this incident, it’s still unclear if there will be any extra costs to taxpayers or if any private information has been stolen.
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