Flint, MI – The City of Flint has installed a completely redesigned network, including next generation firewalls, to deter future cyber attacks and to safeguard the city’s online infrastructure and data. The upgrade comes after an Aug. 14, 2024 cyber attack that caused city systems to go down and called for the cancellation of public meetings.“I do want everyone to rest assured that we will make sure that we follow the charter and have the necessary meetings that we are supposed to have according to the charter,” said Flint City Council Vice President, Candice Mushatt, during an August 26 press conference updating the community on the issue. Officials canceled Flint City Council meetings on August 21 and 26. In addition to the canceled meetings, billing systems being impacted and phone systems were not operational.Flint City Administrator Clyde Edwards issued a statement on August 22 saying there has been some progress restoring internal processes but billing systems were still down. “The City of Flint has made progress toward restoring our internal processes and we are hopeful that billing functionality for the public will be restored sometime next week,” said Edwards.In the meantime, the city administration encourages residents to pay their bills by cash or check and said that there will be no penalties or shut-offs until the issue is resolved. Residents’ information is being uploaded to the new system, but it will be a process before everything is onboard again.Due to the nature of the investigation, the city declined to list these partners during the press conference but did say in an earlier Aug. 14 email that the FBI and Michigan’s Attorney General Office was working on the issue.“We have not done all the things that were necessary to be done over the last two decades. As we advance with technology, we have to advance our security and make sure that this level of attack will not penetrate the walls of the City of Flint,” said Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley during the Aug. 26 press conference.Flint redesigns network after cyber attack is a post from Flint Beat, a hyperlocal news outlet covering Flint, Mich.