CLEVELAND — Cleveland City Hall reopened its doors on Wednesday after a "cyber incident" shuttered the facility for two days.
However, not everything is back up and running. In fact, the city has already announced that services for the public at City Hall will not be available on Thursday (June 13) or Friday (June 14). Cleveland City Hall will be open for employees.
"Today, as we re-opened City Hall, we encountered some expected challenges with our technological systems," the city of Cleveland stated in a release. "It was necessary to have staff in the building to understand what systems are working, test applications and determine what systems need further diagnosis. Bringing staff back to City Hall to test accessibility and connectivity is an important part of bringing systems back online and we are encouraged by our progress. Through this process we understand that not all departments are fully operational."
Residents are being encouraged to use online services or call 311 for more information.
"We ask for the public’s patience as the city continues its effort to restore system access and broadly recover from the incident in a safe and strategic manner," Cleveland leaders added.
Earlier in a post on the city's social media platforms on Wednesday, Cleveland officials announced that its "systems are not yet operational to accept payments or process permit, rental registry, or other Building & Housing applications."
"We advise the public to wait until further notice to come to City Hall to do business with Building & Housing," the city added in its post.
Cleveland City Hall reopened Wednesday at 11 a.m. By 11:15 a.m., 3News' Kaitor Kay saw about 30 people waiting in line to get through security.
"I definitely tried to come yesterday," Laron Fields told 3News while waiting to get a birth certificate. "I found out the building was closed. Kind of threw me off a little bit because I had to take care of the business yesterday."
Bill Doss told us he tried to come earlier this week to apply to start a trucking business, but inconveniently couldn't because the building was closed.
"The computer's been down, the phone's been down, just trying to get a hold of somebody, anybody, it's just been impossible," he said. "I'm missing work right now just to come down here. Not happy about that."
While city officials have not shared what the cyber incident is — saying that could compromise their investigation — some in the public are understanding of the shutdown.
"If it's for the better of Cleveland, for our residents, then I support it," said Michael Brown.
But many have questions about the security of their sensitive information in the midst of this cyber scare.
"How do you prevent it? Or can I protect my information?" Laron Fields asked. "So, it's like, how do you all protect our information? I don't want somebody impersonating me or whatever."
According to a city spokesperson, the full extent of the threat is currently under investigation and the ongoing closure of City Hall was a precautionary measure. Cleveland officials say they identified "abnormalities in its IT environment" and took "precautionary actions to contain those abnormalities."
3News learned Cleveland EMS phone bases went down around 4 p.m. Sunday and did not return until 3 a.m. Monday morning. Christina Miller, the service's secretary, told us, "I can't imagine the mess dispatch had to deal with, as their job is already stressful and difficult." She added they were forced to do their job manually.
While the city has been vague on details, those within the Division of Police tell WKYC difficulties have persisted for days. In a statement, Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Andy Gasiewski said, "The mayor's office has not shared any information with what's going on internally. Police are doing the best they can in the field with limited resources. They are frustrated."
Sources within the department also claim they have "limited email access and most sites are restricted." Internet services have also been described as "in and out," leaving officers "severely handicapped in what we can do."
City officials have not publicly said if the system was hacked or not. However, our media partner Signal Cleveland reports the administration has been in contact with the FBI and the Ohio Cyber Reserve.