UPDATE: The city’s IT team continues work to restore services, and in an update on the city’s social media platforms Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Lilia Hansen reported that payments can now be made at City Hall.
“Our cyber security specialists continue to investigate the cause and impacts,” Hansen said.
“Unfortunately, our service capacity at City Hall and development services remains extremely limited at this time.”
“We are working to slowly restore services. Please continue to monitor the city’s website and social media, for current information.”
Yesterday morning, the City of Fort St. John became aware of a “cyber incident” affecting various systems at the city, including phones, email, and internet. As soon as the incident was discovered the city severed its connections to limit unauthorized activity.
According to the city’s communications manager Ryan Harvey, the incident “is impacting all of our services right now, internet, telephone and network. Unfortunately, all of those pieces are down.”
The city’s facilities remain open – including the pool, bulk water station, the Pomeroy and the Kids Arena Field House – but services are impacted, including the ability to make payments at City Hall.
For example, Harvey said that if someone needs to top up their water account (for the bulk water station), they can’t do it at City Hall, but if “they have been able to set up their self-serve account themselves, that’s available.”
Harvey says they expect it to be at least a couple of days before services are restored.
“We’re still trying to get to the bottom of it, we should have some more information tomorrow (Wednesday),” he said.
“We’re working as quickly as we can, especially those high impact services, to get them back as soon as possible.”
In the meantime, to report a problem, please call 778-256-0076 or use the city’s social media channels. Updates will be provided as soon as they are available.
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