Cyberattack disrupts city services in South Carolina's capital Columbia

A cyberattack has shut down several government systems in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina and a city of about 150,000 residents, according to The Record. The city's IT department identified suspicious activity and contacted the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), which is now leading the investigation. The incident adds to a string of cyberattacks that have disrupted local governments across the United States in recent weeks.

What happened

According to The Record, the attack took down MyColaSC, the platform residents use to pay utility bills, report non-emergency issues and access city services. Geographic Information Systems and animal services systems were also knocked offline. While MyColaSC was unavailable, residents were asked to phone in reports of problems such as potholes, fallen trees and broken streetlights.

The city said that "critical public safety and utility systems remain operational" and that it wanted to reassure residents, The Record reported. Those systems include the Columbia Police Department, the Columbia-Richland Fire Department, 911 communications, Columbia Water systems and the city's Payment Center, including online payments.

What is not yet known

The city did not respond to The Record's questions about whether it is dealing with ransomware, and as of Wednesday no hacking group had claimed responsibility. SLED declined to comment and referred all questions to city officials. The Record's headline says state officials offered assistance, but the report does not detail that assistance beyond SLED's leading role in the investigation. The city has not said how attackers gained access, whether any data was taken or when the affected services will be restored.

Broader context

The Record noted that South Carolina has previously dealt with a ransomware attack on Spartanburg County and a recent incident that shut down systems at the AnMed hospital system. Over the past three weeks, cities and counties in Maryland, New Mexico, Utah, Texas, Nebraska, Missouri, Alaska and Arizona have also suffered service outages caused by cyberattacks or ransomware, according to the publication.

What to do

Columbia residents should use official city phone lines and announcements for service requests while MyColaSC is offline, and be cautious of unsolicited messages claiming to come from the city about bills or payments, since attackers often exploit such outages for phishing. For other local governments, the wave of incidents is a reminder to keep offline backups of critical systems, segment resident-facing portals from core infrastructure and rehearse incident response plans with state partners.