City of Mission victim of “cybersecurity incident”

Criminals targeted portions of the city of Mission’s network in a security breach last week that brought parts of the city’s systems offline.

 

Some of those systems remained offline this week, the city announced in a release Tuesday, in order “to preserve their security and integrity.”

 

The incident, which happened last Friday, left some city employees struggling to complete basic tasks that require the use of email and prompted the cancellation of at least one board meeting this week, though the city says essential response services remain operational.

 

According to the release, the city has notified law enforcement and is working with outside experts to investigate and remediate the incident.

 

Mission told its employees about the incident in a memo sent out early Tuesday afternoon.

 

 

The memo tells employees to beware of suspicious cyber activity and says that the city has “no evidence” to suggest employees will become victims of identity fraud because of the incident.

 

“However, out of an abundance of caution, we recommend that you always remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud by reviewing your financial account statements and monitoring free credit reports to detect errors or identify suspicious activity,” it says.

 

City Manager Mike Perez declined last Friday to comment on the incident.