Texas city suspends public records requirements after cyberattack
Abilene, Texas, on Thursday posted a public notice that temporarily suspends the requirements of the state’s public information law from April 22-28.
The suspension, signed by the City Secretary Shawna Atkinson, comes after the city last week suffered a cyberattack that forced officials to take several servers offline.
According to a public notice issued by the City on Apr. 21, officials received reports of unresponsive servers within the city’s network and began disconnecting impacted systems, as outlined in an incident response plan, and launched an investigation into the attack.
“Our IT Department has worked around the clock to successfully restore our services to minimize downtime and the impact on our operations. Our investigation is ongoing, and we continue to closely monitor our systems for any unusual activity” the notice read.
Texas’ Public Information Act requires government bodies to release information in response to formal requests. However, Texas Government Code allows a temporary pause for governments if they’re affected by a catastrophe.
