Meriden, Connecticut, took city internet services and public Wi-Fi offline after officials reported an attempted disruption of its internet service. The city said emergency services were not affected, but some nonessential operations could be limited while systems remain offline.
Officials said Feb. 17 that the IT department responded immediately and would complete a comprehensive review to determine the scope and nature of the incident before restoring service.
The outage prompted the city to cancel its regularly scheduled City Council meeting on Feb. 17. The city later rescheduled the meeting for Feb. 19 and said it would be held in person because livestreaming was temporarily unavailable.
The city has not said whether the incident was a cyberattack or attributed it to any group. The city did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Mayor Kevin M. Scarpati issued a notice Feb. 19 advising residents and businesses with appointments at city departments to call ahead to confirm dates and times as the city worked to resolve the IT issues.
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WFSB-TV reported the city shut down public Wi-Fi as a precaution after staff noticed an “internet disruption,” and that police are investigating. The station reported the city said late tax or fee payments tied to the outage would not incur penalties.
The disruption also affected public-facing services. WFSB reported the Meriden Public Library posted notices saying it had no internet, limiting computer access and services such as scanning, faxing and printing.
Connecticut municipalities have faced a series of recent technology disruptions, including a ransomware incident that affected New Britain’s city systems in late January and a separate West Haven cyber incident in early 2025 that led to temporary IT shutdowns during an investigation.
