Oakland’s interim city administrator proclaimed a state of local emergency late Tuesday over last week’s ransomware attack against city government networks, infrastructure and communications systems.
In a statement, city staff said the proclamation was meant to help deal with ongoing network outages in the wake of the attack, which began last week and affected multiple non-emergency systems, including some phone lines.
Police said the city’s 911 lines are still working, and that residents and visitors may file online crime reports as necessary.
Similar attacks have targeted hospitals, school districts and other public institutions, including Bay Area Rapid Transit systems just last month. More than 120,000 files related to the transit agency’s police force were ultimately posted to the dark web, including six unredacted reports detailing suspected child abuse, driver’s license numbers and mental health evaluations.
The declaration by interim city administrator G. Harold Duffey, in his capacity as director of the city’s emergency operations center, lets staff “expedite the procurement of equipment and materials, activate emergency workers if needed, and issue orders on an expedited basis, while we work to safely restore systems and bring our services back online,” the statement said.
The order also asks California Gov. Gavin Newsom to issue a state of emergency, as well as “afford the city the benefit of recovering its costs,” “make available all relevant funds to the City and all eligible community members and businesses” and ask the president to make funds available through the federal Small Business Administration.
The emergency order will remain in effect for seven days, unless Oakland’s city council votes to ratify its existence.
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