Call Center Company in Abilene, TX

The city of Abilene, Texas, is working to restore internal systems after an outage detected Friday prompted officials to disconnect part of its municipal network and initiate an incident response plan, according to a city news release.

It joins the cities of Long Beach, Calif.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Sausalito, Calif., in experiencing online incidents in recent months and years. In Texas, the Office of the Attorney General tracks data breaches affecting Texans, although the incident in Abilene has not appeared on its site.

The city’s release Monday indicated “reports of unresponsive servers” prompted leaders to execute the plan, immediately “disconnecting affected and critical assets to secure our systems.”

Officials said they engaged outside cybersecurity experts, notified authorities and began an investigation. Telephone and email services were slowed, although bill pay and emergency services remained functional. No “unidentified financial activity has been detected,” per the release.

“We are in the early stages of our investigation. Anyone who has experienced a cyber incident knows it is a time-intensive process,” the news release said. “Every week, we will learn more about the scope of the incident and will communicate additional details as our investigation progresses.”

City Communications and Marketing Director Mari Cockerell said via email information “on the cyber event is limited to what I believe you have seen online at abilenetx.gov,” but more will be forthcoming “as soon as we are able to do so.”

On Wednesday, telephone services did not appear to be fully operational. Calls to the library and to the city’s communications office were met with an automated greeting that subsequently disconnected. City webpages, however, appeared functional.

Abilene’s IT department, with 26 full-time staff, “has worked around the clock to successfully restore our services to minimize downtime and the impact on our operations,” the release said.

The news release didn’t specify which authorities were notified or who is assisting with the investigation. But City Council documents show Abilene is among many Texas cities that participate in the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool (TMLIRP), which offers cyber liability coverage and incident response support as part of its member services. TMLIRP cybersecurity offerings include consulting on best practices, reviewing cyber coverage and conducting simulated phishing exercises.

At its Sept. 26 meeting, the City Council approved a resolution to purchase cyber liability for the city through TMLIRP.

With more than 1,000 member cities, many of which have no in-house IT, the TMLIRP provides backup when needed. For example, the mayor of Hawkins, Texas, contacted the organization during a potential breach in April 2024. The town of about 1,274 was guided through a monthlong investigation and used insurance benefits to purchase cyber software and new computers.

Pictured on the right, Mark Eichorn is seen walking into the courthouse Wednesday morning. (KTXS/Brenna Gibbons)

ABILENE, Texas — Former assistant teacher at St. John's Episcopal School, Mark Eichorn, was sentenced to 30 years in prison before 20 years of supervised release.

Eichorn was arrested in May 2024 after a cyber crimes investigation uncovered lewd photos of children on his cell phone. He was employed as an assistant teacher at St. John's Episcopal School in Abilene at the time of his arrest but was later terminated.

RELATED | Former Abilene assistant teacher pleads guilty for child pornography

Court documents state Eichorn will be offered supervised release after he serves his time in prison.

Conditions of his release include mental health and sex offender treatments, no contact with the victims, and no computers or internet service without the consent of his probation officer as well as other stipulations.

A former teacher and the Head of School at St. John’s Episcopal School were also arrested for failing to report child abuse after a concerned parent reported Eichorn's activity and nothing was done.

Former teacher Kelsey Alexander and Head of School Rebecca McMillon were both arrested in July for two counts each of failing to report child abuse.

RELATED | Former St. John's teacher, Head of School arrested for failing to report child abuse

McMillon and Alexander are professionals that are required to report any child abuse within 48 hours under the Family Code because they are individuals licensed by the State and in their normal course of duties has direct contact with children.

Their cases are still working through the court system.

NEWS BRIEF

The city of Abilene, Texas, shut down its IT systems after a cyberattack caused server issues.

City officials initially received reports of unresponsive servers in its internal network on April 18 and — following its incident response plan — began disconnecting affected assets to secure its systems.

The city also launched an investigation with outside cybersecurity experts to determine the nature and scope of the intrusion.

"Our investigation is ongoing, and we continue to closely monitor our systems for any unusual activity," said a notice from the city. "Out of an abundance of caution, certain systems have been taken offline."

Emergency services are still running, and water utilities customers will continue to be able to pay their monthly bills. But as systems and telephones slowly become operational again, there may be a delay in response time to service requests.

Credit card systems at government offices are also down, so cash, checks, and online card payments are the only forms of payment currently being accepted.

Though the investigation is still in its early stages, the city intends to communicate additional details as it learns more about the incident.

Just earlier this month, the Lower Sioux Indian Community in south central Minnesota faced a breach in which an unauthorized actor gained access to its systems and disrupted operations for the local healthcare facility, government center, hotel, and casino. The scale was such that it required the tribe to take similar actions by activating an incident response plan and taking certain systems offline. RansomHub, a well known cybercriminal group, took responsibility for this breach on its Dark Web site in addition to several other attacks.

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The city of Abilene, Texas, says it has been working on restoring systems that were taken offline to contain a cyberattack.

The assault started on April 18, when some of the systems in the city’s internal network were reported as unresponsive, and prompted the immediate activation of the incident response plan.

To secure its network, Abilene disconnected critical assets and the systems that were impacted by the attack, the city’s officials announced on Monday.

“We also launched an investigation and engaged industry-leading cybersecurity experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident and notified relevant authorities,” the officials said.

The city’s IT department has been working over the weekend to restore services and minimize impact on operations, Abilene’s officials said, noting that systems are monitored for any unusual activity.

“Emergency services are still up and running with the continued ability to timely assist, and no unidentified financial activity has been detected. Water utilities customers are still able to pay their Municipal Services Statements,” the city said.

It also noted that, while systems are being restored, online services may be slower than usual. Past-due accounts will not be shut off, but both in-person and online payments are available.

“We are in the early stages of our investigation. Anyone who has experienced a cyber incident knows it is a time-intensive process. Every week, we will learn more about the scope of the incident and will communicate additional details as our investigation progresses,” the city said, calling for patience and understanding as the incident is being dealt with.

The information made available to date suggests that Abilene may have been targeted in a ransomware attack, but no ransomware group has taken credit for it at the time of writing.

Known for its large collection of children’s literature character sculptures and home to three Christian universities, Abilene has a population of roughly 130,000 people.

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The government of Abilene, Texas, has shut down some of its systems due to a cyberattack.

City officials said they became aware of the incident on Friday when they received reports of unresponsive servers within the city’s internal network. IT staff immediately began disconnecting the affected systems and cybersecurity experts have been hired to investigate the issue.

“Out of an abundance of caution, certain systems have been taken offline. However, emergency services are still up and running with the continued ability to timely assist, and no unidentified financial activity has been detected,” the city said on Monday.

Due to the outages, none of the card systems at government offices are working, forcing people to pay with cash or checks. The city pledged to not shut off utilities due to overdue accounts and said payments can also be made online with cards.

“While systems and telephones are being brought back online, you may experience a slower than normal response to service requests. We are reviewing email requests and will respond as quickly as possible,” the city added.

The IT team is monitoring the city’s systems to watch for any unusual activity and has been working to restore services.

Government officials provided phone numbers people can call for water-related emergencies or other incidents requiring immediate help. They acknowledged that incident recovery is a “time-intensive process” and more will be learned about the scope of the attack over the next few weeks.

The city declined to comment about whether it is dealing with a ransomware attack or if federal authorities have been notified.

Abilene has more than 130,000 residents and is about three hours west of Dallas and Fort Worth, two cities that recently dealt with their own service-impacting cyberattacks.

Since the ransomware attack on the city of Dallas in 2023, multiple government bodies across Texas have dealt with cyber incidents — including Dallas County, Tarrant County and Wichita County as well as the cities of Fort Worth, Killeen, Richardson, Coppell, McKinney, and Lubbock.

This year, both Matagorda County and the city of Mission declared states of emergency following cyberattacks that grievously impacted critical services.

Cyber issues gained enough prominence within the state that Gov. Greg Abbott announced in February a new Texas Cyber Command based in San Antonio that they hope will “anticipate and detect” potential cyber threats, promote cyber awareness and prepare for attacks through coordination and planning.

“In just the past week or so, a cyberattack has hit a city, has hit a hospital, has hit a prominent business, and this happens week after week, and it's increasing,” Abbott said during a speech announcing the initiative two months ago.

“We cannot let any more time go by without strongly addressing this problem, and that is why I'm calling for an emergency item to create the Texas Cyber Command to better secure our state from cyberattacks.”