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City of Dewey

Posted: Oct 15, 2019 1:45 PMUpdated: Oct 15, 2019 4:09 PM

City of Dewey Looking for Different Website Provider

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Garrett Giles

When the weekend was winding down on Sunday evening, and as everyone was preparing for another work week, a hacker was busy taking over the City of Dewey's website.

City Manager Kevin Trease said an anti-government group took credit for it online with anti-government and anti-police rhetoric and graphics. He said the group’s hostile message was laced with profanity, and that the website was taken down on Monday.

Right now, an off-site third party manages the website for the city. They were able to take the city website down, but the manager of their website is currently out of the country. They will not be able to get the website patched and back up until that person returns. There is no date for that person’s arrival either.

According to Trease, two other municipalities were hacked over the weekend. He believes it could have been the same hacker that made the attacks.

Dewey City Manager Trease said the event was very unfortunate. He said he had been looking at another vendor called Trigent out of Bartlesville several weeks prior to the cyber-attack on the City of Dewey's website. In the next two to three weeks, Trease said they might have an idea of what they might want to pursue with the new vendor.

The current website has been used for the past 12-years. Trease said the city's site needs to be enhanced because there are new things out there that their citizens can utilize. He said the quality needs to improve as well. He said if they can communicate better with better technology, it is a good exchange for their citizens' sake.

While the website is down, the meeting agendas will be posted at Dewey City Hall located at 411 E. Don Tyler Avenue. Items of importance that the public needs to know about will also be posted on the City of Dewey's Facebook page until they can find a solution to fix their website.

City Manager Trease said they hope to get through this unfortunate situation as soon as possible. He said the hacker did not attack the city's servers and no utility bills were tampered in Sunday evening's incident.


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