Weeks after a cyberattack disrupted many of Long Beach’s systems, digital services at all of the city’s libraries are back up and running, according to an announcement today.
Services like the city’s digital lending library, public computer labs, printing services and public Wi-Fi were among the systems taken offline Nov. 15, the day after the city said it had detected a cyber security breach.
In a press release issued Friday morning, the city said that all of those services have been restored and are working properly.
“Our digital amenities offered at Long Beach Public Library like public computer labs and printing services are a large part of our digital equity here in Long Beach,” Mayor Rex Richardson said in a statement. “We understand these are critical services for many Library patrons and we appreciate everyone’s patience while we worked to restore them.”
The city has slowly brought its systems back online since the initial breach was detected. The city’s website was brought back online Nov. 27, and the payment portal for the city’s Utilities Department was put back up Dec. 5.
The city is still assessing the full toll of the attack.
Long Beach officials said at the end of November that it believes that some city data was stolen during the breach, but it’s unsure what kind of data was compromised. Because of an ongoing investigation into what happened, the city has refused to answer questions about the nature of the attack or if the city paid a ransom as a result.
City Manager Tom Modica said the investigation could take months to complete, but he hopes it will be done sooner — within weeks.
The city said it will provide free credit monitoring to anyone whose Social Security data was stolen during the attack. By law, the city must notify anyone whose data was stolen or whom the city reasonably believes could have had their data compromised.