Newburgh City Hall to re-open on Monday; Services being restored after cybersecurity attack

NEWBURGH – City Hall in Newburgh and offices at 123 Grand Street will re-open on Monday, June 17^th, a week after the City was the victim of a cybersecurity attack.

“The average downtime for the kind of network security incident the City of Newburgh faced is 22-26 days,” Newburgh Acting City Manager Mike Neppl said in a statement. “The City’s Executive Team displayed incredible leadership and tenacity by working around the clock to bring most City services back online in less than a week. There is more work to do, and we will not rest until our residents have their services fully restored.”

On Monday, the City of Newburgh identified a network security incident, which resulted in a disruption of some City services and administrative functions, including the ability to process or accept payments for property taxes, water, sewer, sanitation, permit fees, and parking tickets. City leadership immediately engaged outside IT experts and other professionals who continue to work to restore all operations.

City of Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey told Mid-Hudson News on Thursday that the group that compromised Newburgh usually goes after larger cities. Harvey added that the City recently purchased a cybersecurity insurance policy. Cyber insurance typically can help protect a municipality from losses resulting from a cyber-attack, covering costs resulting from data and network breaches, including theft of personal information, and cyber extortion.

During the cybersecurity incident, the Police, Fire, Water, Sewer, Sanitation, Engineering, and Recreation departments continued with only minor disruptions.  City phone and email services will be restored starting Monday at 9:00 a.m. The City’s systems to process and accept payments will be phased in over the next seven to 10 days, and a grace period for late property tax, water, sewer, and sanitation payments during this downtime to the City’s payment systems will be established.