South Carolina officials offer assistance after state capital hit with cyberattack

The city of Columbia, South Carolina said it is responding to a cyberattack that has shut down several government systems. 

A spokesperson told Recorded Future News that the city’s IT department recently identified suspicious activity and contacted the state’s South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), which is now leading the investigation. 

The systems impacted by the attack include the MyColaSC platform that citizens use to pay utility bills, report non-emergency issues and access other city services. The attack also knocked out Geographic Information Systems and systems underpinning animal services. 

They urged residents to call to report concerns like potholes, fallen trees and broken streetlights while the MyColaSC platform was down. 

Columbia is the capital city of South Carolina and has about 150,000 residents.

The city did not respond to questions about whether it is dealing with a ransomware attack. No hacking group has taken credit for the incident as of Wednesday. 

“The City of Columbia wants to reassure residents that critical public safety and utility systems remain operational. These include the Columbia Police Department, Columbia-Richland Fire Department, 911 communications, Columbia Water systems and the Payment Center, including online payment services,” a city official said. 

SLED declined to comment on the incident and directed all questions to Columbia officials. 

The state previously dealt with a ransomware attack on the county of Spartanburg and a recent incident shut down the systems of large non-profit hospital system AnMed.

Columbia is one of the largest municipalities to face attacks in recent weeks as several smaller counties, cities and towns face off against criminal hackers. Cities and counties in Maryland,  New Mexico, Utah, Texas, Nebraska, Missouri, Alaska, and Arizona have all dealt with service outages over the last three weeks due to cyberattacks and ransomware incidents.