Fort Worth's online services affected by data breach

The city of Fort Worth found out about a data breach June 23 around 4 p.m., according to a news release.

The Texas Department of Information Resources Computer Incident Response Team informed the city about an online post claiming individuals had hacked the city’s website. The post included links to data confirmed as belonging to the city.

At this time, there is no indication that sensitive information has been released, according to the news release.

It appears that the hackers did not retrieve the information from the city website, but from an application called Vueworks, which facilitates work orders for the Transportation & Public Works and Property Management departments. The information obtained by the hackers includes emails between city employees and documents attached to work orders such as photos and PDFs.

In order to gain access to Vueworks, the hackers secured login credentials, but city officials are not sure how.

City officials are working with appropriate law enforcement and computer forensic experts to determine the source of the breach. Unlike a recent ransomware attack on the city of Dallas’ online services, there is no ransom being held against the city of Fort Worth. The IT operations have returned to normal as of June 26, according to the city.