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Bradenton, FL - Bradenton officials notified residents that a cyberattack on the CodeRED emergency alert system may have exposed user information and forced the platform offline nationwide.
Bradenton city officials issued a notice Monday after learning that CodeRED the emergency alert system the city has used since 2018 was affected by a cybersecurity breach.
The company informed the city that data from its older platform was accessed during what it described as a targeted cyber incident.
CodeRED has temporarily taken the impacted system offline across the United States while it investigates the breach.
According to the city the information that may have been compromised includes names addresses phone numbers email addresses and passwords associated with CodeRED user profiles.
Officials said many Bradenton subscribers signed up as guests meaning they provided contact information but did not create login credentials.
Those users are unlikely to need to take further action.
However residents who did set up a CodeRED account and reused the same password on other websites are encouraged to update those passwords as a precaution.
Bradenton has relied on CodeRED for seven years to issue alerts during hurricanes severe weather and other urgent public safety situations.
City officials said they are working with the company to monitor the situation and determine whether any additional security steps are needed.
Local news outlets are continuing to check whether other municipalities in the Tampa Bay area also use CodeRED and whether they have been affected by the outage.
No suspect has been identified and no arrest report has been released regarding who may be responsible for the cyberattack.
The investigation is ongoing.