City of Vallejo websites offline since Thursday afternoon; officials say outage not ransomware attack

by John Glidden | Feb. 4, 2021

VALLEJO – An unspecified hardware failure is being blamed for knocking the city of Vallejo websites offline for nearly two days.

As of 10 a.m. Saturday, both www.cityofvallejo.net and vallejopd.net were still offline, more than 44 hours after they first became unavailable for use.

Vallejo spokeswoman Christina Lee confirmed that the outage was not caused by a ransomware attack on the city, when asked by JohnGlidden.com Friday morning.

“This is definitely an issue that the host is having and we are waiting to get answers from them on what the issue is and what their estimated time of restoration is,” she added.

That host company, Intrado, said the disruption in service was due to hardware failure and not a cyberattack.

“We’ve started the process of restoring service to customers,” the company said in a notice about the outage.

On Friday, the city launched a temporary homepage, giving visitors the ability to access permit services, council agendas, and water billing.

Message that greets persons trying to navigate the city of Vallejo or Vallejo Police Department websites

Hours after the outage began, the city clerk’s office sent out a link to next week’s Vallejo City Council meeting agenda. The email also included a message about the outage, stating that the “company that hosts the City’s website is having global issues.”

A message posted to both websites states that the websites are “currently experiencing technical difficulties.”

“Our technicians are working to restore service. We hope to have the site up momentarily. Please check back in a few minutes,” the message reads.

Check back as this is an ongoing story.

Published by John Glidden

John Glidden is a freelance journalist reporting on the city of Vallejo. The native Vallejoan also covers the local school district, Vallejo elections, and public safety.

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