State College Borough in Pennsylvania said a cybersecurity attack hit its network Wednesday, warning residents to expect delayed email responses as staff review systems and work to restore service.
In a notice posted on the borough’s website, officials said the Information Technology division “acted quickly to stop the attack” and that the incident had been contained, but that recovery and review would take several days.
The State College Municipal Building remained open and phone lines were operating, the borough said. Officials said the network disruption could slow staff responses to email during the recovery period.
The Centre Region Council of Governments, a regional agency that coordinates shared services for State College and neighboring municipalities and contracts with the borough for IT support, closed its building “until further notice” after the incident, the Centre Daily Times reported. It was not immediately clear whether the cyberattack disrupted the agency’s systems directly or whether the closure was precautionary.
The borough did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DysruptionHub.
Officials did not disclose the attack method, whether any data was accessed, or whether additional public-facing systems were taken offline. The borough said it would provide updates as more information becomes available.
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Municipal governments around the U.S. have reported similar disruptions in recent weeks. New Britain, Connecticut, said in late January that a network disruption affected some city systems while police and fire operations remained fully operational. Edisto Beach, South Carolina, said it was investigating a potential email-related cyber incident while working with law enforcement and forensic specialists. Southold, New York, said a potential cyber incident took email offline and slowed records processing, though 911 and phone lines remained operating.
State College Borough, in Centre County, is a college-town municipality of about 40,500 residents and is home to Penn State’s main campus.
Officials said recovery work is continuing and updates will be posted. Residents can monitor borough announcements and use phone contacts if email responses are slow.
