An outage in multiple city of Augusta systems is the result of “unauthorized access” that took place independent of last week’s outage, city officials confirmed Tuesday.
So far, the hack isn’t known to have compromised any sensitive data, Mayor Garnett Johnson said.
Technical difficulties that began Sunday “resulted in a disruption to certain computer systems,” Johnson said. “We began an investigation and determined the city was a victim of unauthorized access to our system.”
Officials are “actively investigating to determine whether any sensitive data has been compromised,” Johnson read from a prepared statement. “At this time, we have not confirmed that any sensitive data has been compromised, but we will update you as more information becomes available.”
Last week, city employees lost access to email and phones, and some websites went down. By the weekend, most of the systems were restored. City officials attributed the outage to an equipment failure in its data center.
The latest outage is impacting automated phone systems such as 311, email and multiple city websites, such as its GIS, bid postings and other sources of government information. Online tax payments are unavailable.
The outage has slowed the court system. Probate Court was rendered unable to provide service. Judges complained they are unable to read court documents sent by email.
The announcement followed a 90-minute closed commission meeting on the topic of cyber security.
The area is home to many cybersecurity experts. Augusta is the location of the Georgia Cyber Center and the U.S. Army Cyber Command is located at Fort Gordon.
