Cybersecurity Incident: Recovery & Transformation
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Overview
On Sunday, February 25, 2024, the City of Hamilton identified a cybersecurity incident that compromised a number of our IT systems. A dedicated team of City staff and external experts took swift action to contain the incident, investigate, protect our systems and minimize the impact on the community.
The City continued to provide critical services throughout the cyber incident. The City has made significant progress, keeping the people we serve in our community at the centre of our efforts.
With essentially all services now operating in full or modified state, the City is shifting its focus from response to long-term transformation, turning challenge into opportunity.
As the City transitions from response to transformation, we have a unique opportunity to rebuild our technology infrastructure to be stronger and more resilient, with a focus on enhancing customer experience, utilizing enterprise solutions, achieving efficiencies and increasing resilience to protect against future cybersecurity incidents.
Building a More Resilient City
We are moving forward—not just recovering but reimagining how we serve residents.
The City’s build back journey will facilitate a future-ready, more resilient and efficient City, benefitting all Hamiltonians. We are looking for opportunities as we replace or rebuild systems impacted during the cybersecurity attack to be more open and transparent. We want to take steps to enhance customer service delivery and improve access to city information.
The City has thoroughly analyzed the cyber incident’s financial and operational impacts and its cybersecurity measures, and developed a transformation plan including funding and staffing to enhance cyber resilience and deliver long-term benefits.
2025 funding requirements were included and approved during the 2025 Tax Budget process. Our financially prudent transformation plan spans three years, and considers benefits to the community, City staff, and City operations overall.
To well-position the City long term, we are making key investments in:
- Cybersecurity Resilience - Strengthening cybersecurity to protect against future threats and mitigate risk; and
- Enhancing Internal Systems and Technology Tools to Improve Customer Experience - Streamlining services to improve efficiency, accessibility and service delivery.
The City’s goal remains clear: delivering strong, secure and reliable public services. We are not just rebuilding - we are Building Better and Stronger.
Stay Informed
The City has remained committed to transparency throughout the cyber incident and will continue to update the community when safe and secure to do so. Cyber updates are posted to this page; service updates are included in the relevant sections of the City’s website.
Resources
Key reports and updates related to the incident: