The City of Radford, Virginia, is investigating a possible data incident after an internet outage disabled office email and most phone lines and closed circuit court offices.
In a notice posted Tuesday, city leaders said they brought in cybersecurity professionals, legal counsel and state and federal law enforcement after learning of the problem.
The city said its investigation was ongoing and that “there is limited information at this point.” It has not said what caused the outage or whether anyone accessed city systems.
Several departments offered only limited service. Residents seeking help with utility billing, finance and building services were directed to visit in person.
The public library stayed open, but its phones, email and computers were unavailable. Social services continued operating without phone service. Public works also lost phone and email access.
Emergency communications remained available. The city said 911 and the nonemergency communications center were working, while the sheriff’s office and Radford Transit were unaffected. Early voting also remained open.
City staff were working to maintain and restore critical municipal services, according to the notice. Officials gave no estimated restoration time and did not say when the outage began.
The city has not confirmed a network intrusion, ransomware, data theft or a responsible actor. It did not report an interruption to emergency dispatch or utility delivery.
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In June, Prince George County, Virginia, reported a network outage affecting phones and internet access, and later said online payments were unavailable. The county then confirmed a cybersecurity incident, while 911 and dispatch stayed available.
The county later said its systems were secure and operations had returned to normal, but personal information may have been accessed. It offered free identity monitoring. Radford has not reported a comparable finding.
Radford said it would update its list of available services as functions returned and provide more information as the investigation progressed.
