In Huber Heights, most of the city’s services are running on temporary platforms and independent of one another. IT techs are still working to get tax and utility billing online.
Residents can pay city bills online or pay them in person. All late fees are suspended through the end of this month.
On Sunday, November 12, 2023, the city decalred a 'state of emergency' after an IT tech alerted city leaders about a ransomware attack. It shut down Huber Heights’ city network.
City Manager Richard Dzik confirmed that it was an intentional attack. However, authorities are still uncertain if any residents’ personal data was stolen. The FBI is investigating the incident.
A year ago, Dzik, helped another city navigate a cyber attack when he served as the safety service director for Mount Vernon.
“It was a third party vendor. They have this tool where they can log into your computer, look at your screen and fix things," Dzik explained. "The hackers accessed that tool and used it to put the ransomware on. It took about a month to get back to normal and two months to figure out what happened.”
This week, IT techs will install the latest anti-virus software on the servers. Then they’ll wipe clean all city computers and devices to bring Huber Heights’ network back online.
Meanwhile, city employees are keeping things running on new laptops with Verizon cellular hotspots.
"It’s not the way we prefer to do [business]. In two weeks we should be back on our normal operational schedule.” Dzik also says neighboring cities are offering their IT staff to help.
