Cleveland City Hall reopens after ‘cyber incident’

CLEVELAND – Cleveland City Hall reopened its doors Wednesday after a “cyber incident” forced the facility to remain closed for two days.

However, not all systems are operational again.

SUBSCRIBE TO: Get the most important headlines of the day straight to your inbox every weekday morning with the free 3News to GO! newsletter.

In a post on the city’s social media platforms Wednesday, Cleveland officials said their “systems are not yet operational to accept payments or process permits, rental records or other building and housing applications.”

“We advise the public to wait until further notice before coming to City Hall to conduct business with Building & Housing,” the city added in its post.

Cleveland City Hall reopened at 11 a.m. At 11:15 a.m., 3News’ Kaitor Kay saw about 30 people waiting in line to get through security.

“I definitely tried to get here yesterday,” Laron Fields told 3News while waiting for his birth certificate. “I found out the building was closed. That threw me off a little bit because I had to take care of business yesterday.”

Bill Doss told us that he tried to come here earlier in the week to apply to open a trucking company, but unfortunately was unable to do so because the building was closed.

“The computer was down, the phone was down, I was just trying to get through to anyone, it was just impossible,” he said. “I’m missing work right now just to get here. I’m not happy about that.”

While city officials have not disclosed the nature of the cyber incident, saying it could compromise their investigation, some members of the public are understanding of the closure.

“If it is for the good of Cleveland and our residents, then I support it,” said Michael Brown.

But in the face of this cyber fear, many doubt the security of their confidential data.

“How do you prevent that? Or can I protect my information?” asked Laron Fields. “So, it’s like, how do you protect our information? I don’t want someone impersonating me or anything.”

According to a city spokesperson, the extent of the threat is currently being investigated and the closure of City Hall is a precautionary measure. Cleveland authorities said they had identified “irregularities in the IT environment” and “taken precautionary measures to contain these irregularities.”

3News learned that Cleveland EMS dispatchers went down around 4 p.m. on Sunday and were not able to be contacted again until 3 a.m. Monday morning. Christina Miller, the dispatch clerk, told us, “I can’t even imagine the chaos that dispatchers had to deal with, because their job is already stressful and difficult.” She added that they were forced to do their work manually.

Want to be one of the first to know the most important local and national news? The latest sports updates? We’ve got you covered! You can download the free WKYC app and have the latest updates delivered to your phone: Android, Apple.