Cyber Attack Cripples Bucks Co. 911 Communications Center

IVYLAND BOROUGH, PA —A cyber attack has crippled Bucks County's 911 Communications Center, county officials said.

The Bucks County Department of Emergency Communications is investigating a cybersecurity incident affecting the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, Bucks County spokesman James O’Malley said.

It's the second time in a month that the system has suffered an outage.

O’Malley said that Bucks EMS sent out a message Monday night to police, fire and EMS chiefs, and emergency management coordinators alerting them about the incident.

All phone systems and radio systems remain operational, and all calls for service from the public are being received and dispatched to first responders without delay, O'Malley said.

He added that all incidents are being documented using a backup system.

The CAD system has been offline since Sunday afternoon, and there is currently no projected timeframe for restoration.

Bucks County IT is working to assess the issue and restore CAD service. The county has engaged state and federal partner agencies to assist in our response and investigation.

Automated resources powered by the CAD system will be unavailable for the duration of the outage.

Additionally, the County’s access to CLEAN and NCIC databases has been temporarily disconnected.

We are requesting that radio communication be kept to essential transmissions only. We cannot field requests for incident times and suggest that responders attempt to maintain their times as best they can.

O'Malley said that updates will be provided as more information becomes available and that the county does not have anything additional at this time.

In late December, the Bucks County 911 Communications Center suffered a temporary outage for several hours due to technical issues.

Please see Patch for further details and updates when they become available