Authorities in Pensacola, Florida, said the city is under a cyberattack and that it is too soon to say if it is related to the recent mass shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola.
Mayor Grover Robinson said that the city has been dealing with the matter since Friday night, the same day that Saudi national Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, 21, opened fire, killing three and wounding seven at the Navy base.
Most communications systems at City Hall, including phone and email, are currently down, according to WEARTV.
“The city remains operational despite the cyber incident. We will continue to provide services as we are able to, and we want to emphasize that 911 is NOT impacted,” a Monday post on the city’s Facebook page read.
The FBI said that it is assisting with the attack.
The City of Pensacola has notified the FBI of a potential cyber related incident. We are providing resources to assist. No additional information is available at this time.
— FBI Jacksonville (@FBIJacksonville) December 9, 2019
Robinson said he could not comment on if there was a ransom demand and that it is still not clear who is behind the attack. He also did not speculate on whether the two incidents are related.
“We are at this point going in two different directions. We’re working it from a legal standpoint, trying to work it forensically that way, trying to figure out who this was. And two, where do we go from here in putting our system back together?” the mayor said.
Law enforcement is working on the presumption that the shooting was an “act of terror,” and Saudi officials are investigating whether Alshamrani was radicalized during a February visit to the Middle East.
