Southold Town impacted by 'potential cyber incident,' officials say

Southold Town employees were without email and access to some computer servers Monday after what officials said in an alert to residents was a “potential cyber incident.”

Servers are computers that handle tasks such as data storage and website hosting. Town officials learned of the email problem by 7:30 a.m., but the extent of the disruption to server access was unclear Monday afternoon, Town Supervisor Al Krupski said in a phone interview. Officials warned residents in an alert shortly after 2 p.m. that “town services will be limited.” The alert was posted on the town website, which appeared to be functioning.

The town's 911 and administrative phone systems were not affected by the incident, though processing of records requests will be limited until access to computer systems is restored, Southold Town police said in a Facebook post. "Residents and visitors can be assured that the Southold Town Police Department remains fully prepared to respond to all emergencies and calls for service," the department said.

Officials had not yet determined if the town was the victim of an attack or a technical mishap, Krupski said. There was “no indication” that sensitive municipal or resident information had been exposed, but “we don’t know right now,” he said. “There is no smoking gun.”

As a precaution, Krupski said, town employees physically disconnected town computers from the internet.

“Our focus today is making sure we restore town services so the town can function without email,” Krupski said. “This town is 400 years old — we did function for a long time without email.”

Residents were still able to get services by phone or in person, according to the alert.

Southold employees were consulting with counterparts at Suffolk County and New York State’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services’ Cyber Incident Response Team, Krupski said. The town has three Information Technologies Department staffers.

Representatives for the county and for the homeland security division did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Cyberattacks have impacted local governments and schools across Long Island in recent years. A cyberattack on Suffolk County discovered in 2022 shut down the county’s main website for more than five months, exposing the personal information of about 500,000 people, including 470,000 drivers and 26,000 Suffolk employees and retirees. It also shut down county email and phone systems and affected county 911, payment and traffic-agency systems.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.