New Bedford Computer Outage Spreads to Fire Department

NEW BEDFORD — The cyber attack that has City Hall computers shut down is also affecting the Fire Department.

New Bedford Fire personnel have confirmed with WBSM News reports of downed Fire Department computers.

Crews at the NBFD Headquarters say the outage is not affecting emergency response or dispatch capabilities. They say the outage has affected computers used for backend business duties, such as scheduling and email.

Fire Chief Joseph Barros declined a request for comment on the ongoing situation.

Indications of a cyber attack became apparent on July 5, when City Hall computers shut down in multiple municipal offices. The Mayor’s Office released a statement on the attack, stating the public is “unlikely to notice any negative impacts related to the disruption.”

“Over the holiday weekend, the City’s information technology staff discovered that a computer virus disrupted the City’s municipal information technology services. The IT staff has continued to work with external consultants to restore affected computers and further assess the nature and scope of the disruption,” the statement read.

“The public is unlikely to notice any negative impacts related to the disruption; municipal departments are providing services to residents as usual. The IT staff is unaware of any evidence of unauthorized access to identifiable personal data. Based on the advice of IT security professionals, the City is refraining from providing information related to specific impacts at this time. At an appropriate time in the future, we hope to provide more information.”

Ward Three City Councilor Hugh Dunn penned a letter to Mayor Jon Mitchell Wednesday requesting transparency on the attack, while also expressing concern about the lack of an update on the situation from the administration.