City of Angleton, Texas, Cyberattack Kept Quiet as “Internet Outage”

The City of Angleton quietly told the Texas Attorney General it was suspending Public Information Act (PIA) deadlines from July 28 to August 4 because of a “cyber attack,” while telling residents only that services were down due to an “unexpected internet outage.” In Angleton, Texas, the disruption halted online utility-billing payments and triggered municipal court cancellations and cash-or-money-order-only rules, according to city posts shared with residents. The official catastrophe notice lists the city secretary as the contact and confirms the suspension window and reason.

The notice matters because Texas allows a government to pause PIA obligations for up to seven calendar days (with one possible seven-day extension) during a catastrophe, and requires local governments to report cybersecurity incidents to the state within 48 hours—measures that aim to keep operations steady but can reduce transparency in the short term. In this case, residents learned about billing delays, fee leniency and canceled court dates, but not that a cyberattack prompted the outage. The Attorney General’s guidance confirms the limited suspension rules, and DIR policy outlines the 48-hour reporting requirement.