The website remained offline Monday as officials continued reviewing their systems.
In a social media posting Monday morning, city officials said that there is no evidence that personal information of any city employee or resident has been accessed.
If the investigation reveals any security breaches, the affected individuals will be contacted directly by the city, according to the message on the social media page.
All emergency service communication lines remained operational. There was no information given on when the government website might be operational. A spokesperson for the city of Hayward could not be reached.
The presumed attack on Hayward follows a ransomware attack in Oakland in March that leaked personal data on thousands of Oakland city employees, including Social Security and driver's license numbers and personal addresses.
Attacks on government websites are becoming increasingly common. According to data compiled by security researcher Comparitech, hackers launched 330 ransomware attacks on U.S. government entities between 2018 and 2022, costing an estimated $70 billion in downtime.
©2023 the San Francisco Chronicle, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
