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Kansas City, Kan., Remains Relatively Silent on Cyber Attack

A press conference lasting less than 10 minutes was held Friday to address the April 16 cyber attack, but it remains unclear if any data was breached or when all city services will come back online.

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(TNS) — Officials with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas gave few new details on the nature of a cybersecurity attack during a press conference Friday.

Mayor Tyrone Garner and Interim County Administrator Cheryl Harrison-Lee spoke for less than 10 minutes, calling the cyber attack a "fluid situation."

"What we may have realized tomorrow may not be what we have realized today," Garner said.

The cyber attack took place April 16 and was discovered later that day by a Unified Government employee. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were notified. Local, state and federal officials are assisting in the investigation.

Garner acknowledged that there have been questions about transparency surrounding the cybersecurity attack.

But he and Harrison-Lee did not take any questions.

It remains unclear if any data was breached or if the incident was a ransomware attack. Officials said that they do not want to release any information that could affect the ongoing investigation.

"The UG has felt the impacts of the cyber attack, but has avoided the worst-case outcomes that could have been realized," Garner said.

After the attack was discovered, the Unified Government brought in more private sector security resources and no additional attacks have been detected.

Garner said many of the Unified Government's services were shutdown as a precaution.

Among the systems that were temporarily delayed was a connection with state databases for motor vehicles. Those connections have since been restored, Harrison-Lee said.

Some systems, however, are still down. Residents cannot pay property taxes online and have to drop off their payments at the Wyandotte County courthouse. It's still unclear when all the systems will be operational.

Officials hope to have another update on the status of the investigation in the next week.

©2022 The Kansas City Star. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.