Cyberattack targets North St. Paul Police Department, city says
Data at the North St. Paul Police Department may have been "compromised" as a result of a cyberattack, city officials said Monday.
City Manager Brian Frandle said the following in a memo for an emergency City Council meeting that happened Monday afternoon:
The North St. Paul Police Department recently experienced a cyberattack that may have compromised some data. To ascertain the full scope of the attack, and to ensure that all cybersecurity threats have been addressed and that the attack cannot continue, City Staff are requesting that the council engage cybersecurity experts with the McDonald Hopkins firm.
During the meeting, the City Council voted to approve a contract with McDonald Hopkins. The city says the law firm works with a team of cybersecurity advisors at Arete Advisors.
According to a statement of work document from Arete shared by the city, the advisors will "determine the scope of the attack" and find out whether there was a data leak.
North St. Paul Police Chief Raymond Rozales said the incident "is temporarily impacting access to some internal systems and online services."
"Public safety and critical infrastructure systems remain fully operational," Rozales said. "Our teams are working closely with local, state, and federal partners to resolve the situation and restore full functionality."
This comes less than a week after Gov. Tim Walz activated the Minnesota National Guard to help the city of St. Paul respond to a cyberattack. Officials discovered the threat on July 25. As of Monday evening, several city-only services remain offline.