Since announcing a network outage on March 6, the city has provided no updates on the situation or explained what caused the outage.
The city has not responded to multiple requests for comment from Recorded Future News and other local news outlets.
A spokesperson for the city council directed all inquiries to the mayor's communication office, which did not respond.
AL.com reported on Tuesday that the city sent an internal memo to city employees assuring that salaries would be paid this month and denying rumors that data had been stolen.
Written by city spokesman Rick Journey, provided no specifics about whether the city is dealing with a ransomware attack.
Because things have to be done manually, permits may take more time to process.
Despite claiming that police operations were not affected, officials told AL.com that the outage has impacted a system officers use to check for outstanding warrants and stolen cars.
All transactions for taxes, permits and licenses have been affected by the outage.
They urged the city's more than 200,000 residents to check social media for updates, but none were provided until Thursday's brief statement.
The Birmingham outages took place as the state of Alabama dealt with distributed denial-of-service attacks that briefly limited access to several government websites.
According to ransomware expert Brett Callow, at least 19 governments and agencies across the U.S. have been impacted by ransomware so far in 2024.
Georgia's Fulton County, home to Atlanta, is still in the process of recovering from a ransomware attack that limited services for more than a month.
Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since 2014.
Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia.
He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Fri, 15 Mar 2024 16:40:25 +0000