A network outage affecting Delaware County, Pennsylvania, government systems disrupted phone service at some county offices and remained unresolved Monday, raising cybersecurity questions.
Delaware County Council said Friday that the outage affected some services and offices at the Government Center Complex in Media, with some offices experiencing a loss of phone connectivity. At the time, the county said other county offices around Delaware County had not reported network issues.
The Delaware County Daily Times reported Monday that the “computer system problem” was still affecting county government. “Our IT team is working diligently to address the issue. Our departments have been working creatively to find ways to continue serving our residents throughout this disruption, and we look forward to resolving the issue and restoring network access,” county communications director Mike Connolly told the newspaper.
The county has not publicly described the outage as a cyberattack, ransomware incident or data breach. DysruptionHub emailed Connolly seeking clarification on whether the outage is being investigated as a cybersecurity incident or whether that had been ruled out.
Delaware County Libraries also posted a network outage notice saying public access computers and in-library catalogs were not available and asking patrons to bring library cards to check out items. DysruptionHub emailed the library system seeking confirmation on whether that disruption is connected to the county network outage.
The county’s public press release page did not list a notice about the network outage as of Monday afternoon. The most recent releases visible on the page concerned other county programs and events.
Other Pennsylvania government disruptions have later been tied to cybersecurity incidents. In York, a July 2025 disruption that affected email and parking systems was later reported to have involved a ransomware settlement.
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Delaware County, outside Philadelphia, includes 49 municipalities across more than 184 square miles, according to the county website.
The unresolved outage follows a previous ransomware incident involving Delaware County government. WHYY reported in January 2021 that a county memo said the government network was accessed through a phishing email in September 2020, ransomware was activated and the county paid a $25,000 ransom.
County officials have described the latest disruption only as a network outage and have not publicly said whether it involved unauthorized access, ransomware, data theft or a ransom demand.
