CLEVELAND — Cleveland City Hall remained closed to the public Friday as officials in Ohio’s second-largest city continued to grapple with the fallout from a cyber threat.
City operations have been hampered all week by the threat, which was first discovered on Sunday. The nature of the threat, its cause and how extensively it affected Cleveland’s computer systems were not disclosed. State and federal authorities are investigating.
After shutting down most systems early this week and closing City Hall and a second government site to both residents and employees, Democratic Mayor Justin Bibb tried to bring back employees on Wednesday. A slew of problems followed, including problems processing building permits and birth and death certificates in two of the city’s busiest departments.
The Bibb administration said the city had made encouraging progress on its first day and characterized Wednesday’s events as “expected challenges” as systems are restored. But he again ordered City Hall closed to the public until the end of the week. Employees are back to work.
Cleveland officials referred residents to the neighboring cities of Parma and Lakewood for some services, and some online options appeared functional.
Akron had to close some city functions after a cyber attack in 2019.