On Feb. 17, Meriden's 911 center staff temporarily relocated to the Connecticut Statewide Emergency Communications Center at the Connecticut Police Academy in Meriden, said Rick Green, spokesman for the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.
"Our telecommunications engineers quickly established radio communications and set up four additional 911 workstations, enabling Meriden to maintain full emergency response capabilities without interruption," Green said.
The city was still operating from the statewide communications center as of Wednesday, Green said.
Almost two weeks after detecting what officials called an "attempted interruption" in Meriden's network, city leaders still don't have a timeline of when service may be restored.
"At this time, a comprehensive investigation is ongoing and some city services remain affected," Mayor Kevin Scarpati said Wednesday in a statement. "We will provide additional updates as appropriate."
The City Clerk's office is referring residents to outside towns with access to vital statistics software for copies of birth and death records after Oct. 1, 2001. Earlier records and marriage licenses are available at City Hall for cash only, said City Clerk Michael Cardona.
Other departments are manually recording data for reentry when the network returns.
City information technology workers identified the interruption Feb. 13 and immediately shut down the network to identify and assess any breaches. At the time, Meriden officials said they were working with outside agencies and had hoped the system would be restored within days.
Multiple officials declined comment when asked why the outage has stretched into its second week.
The cyber interruption comes on the heels of a January ransomware attack on New Britain's network that also affected its phone service. That city's email and phone system is now operational. Oficials did not return requests for comment.
"We are aware of recent incidents in New Britain and Meriden," Green said. " DESPP's Division of Statewide Emergency Telecommunications has worked to assist local officials in both communities."
In addition to the recent New Britain incident, in 2023, two Connecticut hospitals owned by Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. were shut down for several days while the FBI investigated a cyber attack on the health network's system.
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