Cyber Attack Impacts Reading’s CodeRED Alerts

READING — The Town of Reading has been notified of a nationwide cyber attack against the OnSolve CodeRED emergency notifications system, which is used by our community. 

Per the vendor: community members and residents who are signed up for CodeRed Notifications are highly encouraged to change/update their passwords for other personal or business accounts if the same password has been used to make the emergency notification system account. 

The CodeRED emergency notification system is a voluntary program where residents can sign up to receive notifications and alerts regarding emergencies, ongoing projects, and more.   

The vendor, OnSolve, is investigating this attack and is actively looking at alternative options for users, including migrating users to its other platform, Crisis24.  

CodeRED is NOT related to the Emergency Alert System, which is the federal government-managed emergency notifications system, which is recognizable by the telltale alert tone that residents may hear on TV, radio or via their cellphones. This service, which the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may deploy during a serious emergency, is not affected by the CodeRED outage.

The community will provide updates to residents once they become available from OnSolve CodeRED systems. Residents can visit the Town of Reading website: https://www.readingma.gov/ for updates and alerts. 

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