One Cyberattack Just Took an Entire City Offline

Malicious software forced Suisun City to shut down its entire computer network and declare a state of emergency.

Quick Take

The city said malicious software hit its systems early Friday morning.
Officials shut down the full network to contain the threat and preserve evidence.
Police, fire, and dispatch services stayed active through backup channels.
The emergency declaration was used to speed response and seek reimbursement.

City Shuts Down Network After Attack

Suisun City said a cyberattack infected its information technology systems around 5:45 a.m. Friday and pushed leaders to take the whole network offline. The city said the shutdown was meant to contain the threat and preserve evidence for a federal investigation. That move turned a local cyber incident into a public emergency, with officials treating it as a serious operational threat rather than a routine outage.

The city council met in a special session at 11 a.m. Saturday and declared a state of emergency under Government Code 8630. Officials said the declaration would help the city access emergency support and seek reimbursement for costs tied to the attack. For readers frustrated by government waste, that detail matters: the emergency label was not just symbolic. It was also an administrative tool for response and recovery.

Public Safety Systems Kept Working

City leaders said there was no imminent threat to the public, and they stressed that emergency services stayed on duty. Dispatchers kept taking calls through the Solano County dispatch center, while Suisun City police officers and firefighters continued responding to calls for service. ABC10 reported the same basic picture, saying police and fire remained operational and that backup dispatch handled 911 traffic while officials checked whether data had been compromised.

That point is important because cyber incidents can create panic fast. Here, the city’s own statement separated the network outage from a collapse in public safety. Online city services and internal systems were still down, but the core emergency response system kept functioning. The record now available does not show a confirmed data theft, a ransom demand, or the malware type, so the public is still working with limited facts.

Federal and State Agencies Joined the Response

Suisun City said it was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security, and the California Office of Emergency Services. That matters because it shows the city was not treating this as an isolated IT problem. It was handling it as a broader security event with possible evidence to protect and investigative steps to follow. The city also said cybersecurity experts were helping restore systems while the incident remained under investigation.

Cyberattack forces emergency declaration in Suisun City, Calif. – Los Angeles Times https://t.co/oZLRm4E7nL

— Boone Cutler 🦬🇺🇸 🦅 (@boonecutler) August 10, 2026

Early coverage from local outlets largely matched the city’s account, repeating that malicious software disrupted city systems and forced a full shutdown. That consistency strengthens the basic facts, but it does not answer every question. The public record still does not include a forensic report, a technical timeline, or proof of how far the intrusion spread. For now, the strongest confirmed point is simple: Suisun City acted fast, went into containment mode, and kept emergency response alive.