Birmingham Network Outage Continues to Impact the City
BIRMINGHAM, Ala – City leaders in Birmingham have expressed that work is still underway to restore systems following a prolonged computer network disruption that has been affecting the city for months. On Tuesday, June 4, Birmingham city council approved a contract just shy of $20,000 to implement strategies associated with security procedures.
No Malicious Activity Detected
A city spokesperson has confirmed there hasn’t been any indication of suspicious activity within the city’s systems. However, due to the network outage, scheduling difficulties have resulted in the city missing its targeted budget dates. As a workaround, leaders have decided to use this year’s budget for the forthcoming year, a process reportedly done previously, and adjustments will be made to the budget as required.
Fraternal Order of Police Feedback
The Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police, Lawrence Billups, acknowledged that the situation has seen some improvement since the city organized numerous tele-town halls for employees discussing the outage. Still, he conceded that police officers continue to manually fill out all incident reports.
“The current situation impacts the citizens more than it does us, given they are unable to get hold of their reports. Thankfully, they can now start obtaining their accident reports in a more timely manner,” Billups remarked.
Ongoing Restoration Efforts
A city spokesperson has stated that they are still in the process of bringing all city systems back online, noting that the timeline for full operability of certain systems may be ongoing based on each department’s decisions. This could possibly be due to specific system data updates or upgrades. The official statement on the disruption reads:
“As stated on April 30, there’s no sign of suspicious activity in the city’s systems. The city is working to bring all city systems online; however, full operability of certain systems may continue to be an ongoing process based on the decisions of each department. That may be due to specific system data updates or upgrades.”
City residents are encouraged to stay updated through notifications available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or by subscribing to email newsletters. This is a developing situation which we will continue to monitor closely.
