Richardson Mitigating Cyber Attack After Swift Response

Cyber criminals were largely thwarted during a Wednesday, Sept. 25, attack on the city of Richardson’s servers.

An outside actor gained entry that morning, but automated security systems interrupted and stopped an attempted file encryption. The FBI is investigating, according to a city update.

IT teams were shutting down and restoring the internal network as a precaution on Thursday night, impacting several outward-facing services.

The city originally reported that only a portion of internal systems were impacted, but restoration would ensure they would be “free of corrupted data,” according to a subsequent news release.

The following customer services were taken offline for restoration, and service interruptions were expected:

• Building permits
• Brush and bulky waste requests
• Code enforcement complaints
• Municipal court payments
• Pet registration
• Utility payments
• Other customer service portals

“The threat of these incidents is a reality that all cities face, and it is something we have been diligently preparing for,” said City Manager Don Magner in the Wednesday update. “At this point, our security protocols seem to have successfully minimized the impact, and we hope this continues. We are doing everything in our power to restore our systems as quickly as possible and will identify resources necessary to assist affected individuals, if necessary.”

There was limited information available Friday morning, and the city has issued a Cyber FAQ with details, stating that the scope of the attack is not known.

Richardson is the heart of the “Telecom Corridor” and home to the University of Texas at Dallas; it has about 120,000 residents.

The city information technology department has a $7.2 million general budget for FY 2024-25.