WEST CHESTER, Ohio — West Chester Township said it was notified of a potential cybersecurity breach Tuesday morning.
Township officials said they were alerted that a "malicious hacking group" appeared to have targeted their central email server. The attack is the second time the same group has targeted the township in the past month, officials said. The first attack was on Aug. 12.
At this time, the township says there is no evidence that data has been stolen.
Since the first attack, West Chester said it has been working with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, legal counsel and cybersecurity experts to "investigate the incident, strengthen our defenses and respond to the potential threat."
"A forensic analysis has been initiated into the attack, and steps have been taken to protect critical systems and sensitive data," township officials said.
The news comes a week after Middletown announced a cybersecurity incident that impacted several city functions. Officials did not say if any personal information of city officials or residents was accessed in the cybersecurity incident. However, in-person services for things like public records, utility billing, income tax and public health were shut down due to the disruption.
"Please be patient as the city navigates this unfortunate situation," Middletown officials said at the time.
Days later, some services reopened to the public, but emails, phones and website services were still unavailable.
It is unclear at this time if both West Chester and Middletown were attacked by the same group.
West Chester said it will share updates on the incident as more information becomes available.
