Cyber Incident Victim: City of Meriden
Date:
Feb 2026
Location:
United States of America
Summary
Meriden experienced a network interruption that prompted officials to shut down its systems and move emergency dispatch operations to a state facility while maintaining handwritten records in other departments. The city worked with state and outside agencies to investigate the incident and gradually restored email and other online services over several weeks, eventually returning the dispatch center to its original location after confirming the network was secure.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 0 motives | 0 techniques |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On February 13, 2026, Meriden’s information technology workers detected an attempted interruption of the city’s computer network and immediately shut down the system to identify and assess any breaches. The city reported that officials were working with outside agencies and had hoped to restore service within days. On February 17, the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection announced that Meriden’s 911 center staff had been temporarily relocated to the Connecticut Statewide Emergency Communications Center at the Connecticut Police Academy in Meriden. State telecommunications engineers established radio communications and set up four additional 911 workstations, allowing the city to maintain full emergency response capabilities without interruption. The dispatch center remained at the Police Academy while the city’s network remained offline.
As a result of the network shutdown, multiple city departments operated without Internet access for nearly two weeks, forcing employees to keep hand‑written records in all divisions except the public schools. The City Clerk’s office directed residents seeking birth and death records after October 1, 2001, to neighboring towns with access to vital statistics software, while earlier records and marriage licenses remained available at City Hall for cash only. Other city departments began manually recording data for later reentry once the network was restored. The interruption occurred shortly after a January ransomware attack on neighboring New Britain’s network, although Meriden officials had not classified their incident as ransomware at that time.
On March 3, 2026, Meriden began slowly restoring some online services, including email access for a subset of employees, though officials could not specify when full system functionality would be regained. After approximately three weeks of operating from the Police Academy, the emergency dispatch center returned to its usual location at the Meriden police station on a Wednesday, as reported by state and local police. Throughout the outage, city leaders stated that a comprehensive investigation was ongoing and that they would provide updates as appropriate, but they did not offer a definitive timeline for complete restoration. The state’s Division of Statewide Emergency Telecommunications continued to assist Meriden and New Britain in response to the cyber incidents.