The Town of Franklin has been experiencing computer network problems for a week, which is limiting the ability to process payments, receive electronic communications as well as other functions.
Town Manager Amie Owens said the North Carolina Joint Cybersecurity Task Force is leading the investigation into the disruption that began on Jan. 14.
“They have been on site every day since Wednesday, even through the weekend, trying to get us restored as quickly as possible,” she said.
The state-funded task force is a team of network restoration professionals from the NC National Guard, the NC Local Government Information Systems Association, NC Emergency Management, and NC Department of IT.
Owens said because the investigation is ongoing she could not talk about what led them to discover the disruption.
“Anything that was linked to the Internet or our servers is being reviewed and restored,” she said.
Franklin Town Hall is open with regular hours and the phones have been routed through a cell phone.
“We can still communicate with customers. We do have folks in the office if people stop by,” Owens said Tuesday morning. “But there’s limited information that we can share as it is an ongoing investigation by that task force.”
Emergency calls should be placed through 911 as usual. (911 is operated by the county.)
“911 was not impacted,” Owens said. “Emergency calls are still going through just fine. People can still call for police, fire, they’ll still get the services. There are no delays there.”
On Monday the town said due to the continuing issues and being unable to process utility or tax payments there will be no late payment fees for bills due on Jan. 15 and there will be no service cut offs due to delinquent balances until after Feb. 1.
“The town is collaborating with network restoration professionals and are working to resolve this issue,” Owens said. “We appreciate your patience and understanding and additional updates will be shared as they become available.”
Owens said the town has emergency preparedness plans for such situations. “At no time did any life safety services cease to operate. We followed our contingency plan, and all emergency services have been fully operational throughout the incident.”
Owens said the task force has not indicated when restoration will be completed or what follow-up steps will be needed in the long run.
“At this point we aren’t really sure what has to happen,” she said. “They’re going to make recommendations as they work through the restoration.”
Owens said the investigation and restoration will take time and they appreciate the community’s patience. “We assure you that we will take all steps necessary, required, and permitted of our municipality to restore our systems and to comply with applicable law.”