Sacramento city websites were down for approximately an hour on Tuesday morning. The city's main page, as well as the websites for the Sacramento Police Department and the Sacramento Fire Department, were affected.
Mayor Kevin Johnson held a news conference Tuesday afternoon, where he confirmed the shutdown and that it had affected the city’s network and email system as well. However, emergency services were not impacted due to a backup server, he said.
Maria MacGunigal, the city’s chief information officer, also confirmed to Techwire the loss of power, commenting only that “there was a power failure at the primary data center today that impacted the availability of the City's website.”
The “hacktivist” group Anonymous two weeks ago began posting a series of video warnings aimed at the city of Sacramento, regarding the recent “cease and desist” order passed concerning homeless camping in public areas.
There was no indication from city officials as of Tuesday that Anonymous was involved in Sacramento's website outage.
“The actions of your city are a clear violation of amendments 1, 4 and 8 of the United States Constitution," a masked man said in a video released on Jan. 10 by someone claiming to be with Anonymous. “Further attempts to turn our right to protest into a criminal act will only add fuel to the proverbial fire by making your corporate a public to the health and welfare of society's most vulnerable populations.”
It was the fourth such video targeted at Sacramento since early January, warning of consequences for the new law. The group says their cause is called “Operation Right To Rest.” They say they are protesting the laws they believe are illegal and unfairly targeted at homeless populations across the United States.
Sacramento city officials last week disputed a claim from Anonymous that the group had breached a computer system in order to publicly post information about city councilmembers.
Anonymous has in the past targeted a city’s online presence in protest of a law aimed at controlling the homeless population. In late 2014, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., experienced a similar hack, reportedly prompting the city to spend nearly half a million dollars in 2015 to improve the city’s cybersecurity.
