Jacksonville, Texas City Services Disrupted After Cyberattack

On Friday, July 3rd, the city of Jacksonville, Texas detected suspicious activity on its computer network. City officials determined this was a cybersecurity incident and took immediate action by shutting down affected systems. As of Monday, some of the city's online services remained unavailable while the investigation continued. The city disabled certain systems as a precaution to prevent further damage. This incident affects residents of Jacksonville, Texas who rely on city online services. If you need to pay a utility bill, access city records, or use other online city services, you may find these systems temporarily unavailable.

Your personal information stored in city systems, such as utility account details or property records, could potentially be at risk depending on what the attackers accessed before systems were shut down.

If you are a Jacksonville resident, here's what you should do:

1. Contact the city directly by phone for urgent matters instead of relying on online services. Do not send sensitive information by email until city systems are confirmed secure.
2. Monitor your bank and credit card statements closely if you've made payments to the city online recently. Look for any unauthorized charges.
3. Watch for suspicious emails or calls claiming to be from the city. Scammers often follow up on data breaches by pretending to be officials asking for personal information.
4. Check the official city website or social media channels for updates about when services will be restored and whether any personal data was compromised. Cyber incidents affecting local governments are becoming more common. When your city gets hit, it's a good reminder to practice general digital safety. Keep separate, strong passwords for different accounts. Don't reuse the same password for your utility account, bank, and email. Consider using a password manager to keep track of unique passwords. Stay informed about local news so you can respond quickly if officials announce that personal data was exposed.