A cyberattack disrupted some town and public safety computer systems in Pepperell, Massachusetts, and affected nearby communities tied to its regional dispatch center, though officials said 911 was operating normally Wednesday.
Pepperell officials said they first became aware of the incident early Tuesday morning. Town Hall remained open for routine municipal business as the town worked to investigate and contain the attack.
WCVB reported the incident also affected the Patriot Regional Emergency Communications Center and nearby communities it serves. Police and fire departments in Ashby, Pepperell and Townsend were affected. Groton police posted alerts about business-line problems but did not specifically attribute the outage to a cyberattack. Officials in Pepperell and Townsend said first responders could still answer emergency calls and that the 911 phone system continued operating normally.
“We immediately engaged our insurance provider and reputable outside cybersecurity agencies to respond to and mitigate this attack,” Pepperell Town Administrator Andrew MacLean said in a statement reported by Boston 25. He said the town would continue updating the public as the response moved forward.
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Pepperell and Townsend brought in state and federal law enforcement and were still working to determine whether any data was compromised. Officials said there was no evidence as of Wednesday that private user information had been shared.
Officials have not said who was responsible or specified the exact nature of the activity, and no public claims of responsibility have surfaced. DysruptionHub did not receive a response to an emailed request for comment.
The Patriot center is a regional operation serving Dunstable, Groton, Pepperell, Townsend and Ashby, according to a 2024 Dunstable town newsletter. Pepperell is a Middlesex County town of about 11,877 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Other emergency communications centers have also had to shift to backup or manual procedures after cyber incidents. In August 2025, an apparent cyberattack disrupted CAD software at the South Shore Regional Emergency Communications Center in Massachusetts without knocking out 911 service. Ada County, Idaho, took its CAD system offline after detecting malware in July 2024, and REMSA Health in Nevada said a February 2025 cyberattack temporarily affected dispatch support systems but not core emergency response.
Officials have not publicly said which systems were initially compromised, whether any municipal or dispatch records were accessed, or when all affected business systems will be fully restored.
