On July 22, Truckee experienced a cybersecurity attack which breached its system and caused phones, internet, access to data, and everything that exists behind the town’s firewall to be shut down.

At Tuesday’s Truckee Town Council meeting, Town Manager Jennifer Callaway provided an update on the attack.

“Town staff responded immediately and effectively by shutting down the town’s IT network completely, literally pulling the cords,” said Callaway.

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Truckee’s Emergency Operation Center was activated during the event, the town’s insurance carrier for cybersecurity was notified, and their team was brought on board. Due to the attack, according to Callaway, Truckee employees had to be outfitted with new computers and hotspots for internet access.

“These attacks were paralyzing in many ways, but your town team showed up every day,” said Callaway.

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“We haven’t been able to be as transparent as we would normally would or would like to be … we apologize for that, but I have to say my first obligation is to make sure our town is protected and our town assets are protected.”

Since the July cyberattack, the town has worked to recover data, and build new systems. It’s also brought in a team of information technology experts to help complement the existing team.

However, Callaway said more work needs to be done, as the cyberattack set the town’s permitting process back by roughly six weeks. A future agenda item will address hiring additional staff in order to help speed up the lag in the permitting process.

Additionally, the town lost its archived emails during the attack.

“That particular exchange server was infected with a very malicious piece of malware, and it has been recommended to us by our forensic investigators that we don’t turn that on for risk of spreading that malware further into our newly rebuilt system,” said Callaway.

Justin Scacco is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. Contact him at jscacco@sierrasun.com