BAR HARBOR—On the evening of August 3, the Town of Bar Harbor issued another statement about the town’s closure of multiple systems and its town office.
A statement from Town Manager James Smith, released Sunday night, slightly after 8:30 p.m. said that the town offices would remain closed Monday, August 4 as the town keeps working with cybersecurity experts to investigate the cybersecurity breach that occurred July 30.
The town office has been closed since the breach was discovered last week.
“While we are not yet ready to resume normal daily operations for the public, we have made meaningful progress,” Smith wrote. “Our team, in coordination with CrowdStrike, has advanced through critical stages of forensic review and system monitoring. Several systems remain offline to ensure full integrity before they are restored, and this step is essential to prevent any future compromise.”
There haven’t been any details yet released about what data—if any—has been compromised.
Smith said that the police, fire and ambulance, dispatch, water, and wastewater departments have not been disrupted and are secure.
“We anticipate providing a clearer timeline for restoring public-facing services in the coming days. Our goal is not just to bring systems back online, but to do so with full confidence in their security,” Smith said. “We appreciate the community’s continued patience as we complete this important work and will share further updates as milestones are reached.”
It is the third communication from the town about the breach.
“Acting in an abundance of precaution, our finance department froze all existing municipal bank accounts and is establishing new accounts with isolated access controls. Although security measures were already in place following a separate incident earlier this year, we felt it was prudent to take further additional steps to protect all financial activity. Vendors who receive recurring payments or make deposits have been contacted in order to ensure a smooth transition,” Smith said in an earlier statement.
The scope of any employees’ personal information being exposed is still being investigated, Smith said previously. The possibility of any town customers’ or voters’ personally identifiable information having been compromised has not been disclosed.
In March, Bar Harbor municipal and school officials faced a cybercrime that tried to compromise some of the bond money to pay for the rebuilding of the Conners Emerson School, a project that had already begun. Those funds were returned.
A data breach for the Mount Desert Island regional school community, December 28, 2024 had prompted the school system to offer free credit monitoring for adults and identity protection services for minors, School Superintendent Mike Zboray said in January.
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