Anchorage Police Department Responds to Cyberattack on Third-Party Vendor
The Anchorage Police Department (APD) took swift action following a cyberattack on Whitebox Technologies, a data migration firm serving multiple government agencies nationwide. The incident was reported to APD on January 7, prompting the city’s IT department to shut down affected servers, disable vendor access, and remove all APD data from the third-party provider’s systems.
While the APD confirmed there is no evidence of a direct breach of its own systems or data theft, officials are implementing enhanced monitoring and protective measures to mitigate risks. The department has pledged to notify any individuals potentially impacted as the investigation continues.
Whitebox Technologies, which provides services to municipalities in Washington, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Maine, is leading the probe. The APD clarified that the incident was unrelated to a recent 311 outage in Anchorage.
This attack underscores the growing threat to local governments through third-party vendors, a trend highlighted by a November ransomware attack on Crisis24, an emergency alert service used by U.S. municipalities. The APD is working with other city departments to ensure security safeguards remain in place as the investigation unfolds.
Source: https://therecord.media/anchorage-police-takes-servers-offline-after-third-party-attack
Anchorage Police Department cybersecurity rating report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/anchorage-police-department
White Box Technologies, Inc. cybersecurity rating report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/whiteboxtechnologiesinc
"id": "ANCWHI1768515420",
"linkid": "anchorage-police-department, whiteboxtechnologiesinc",
"type": "Cyber Attack",
"date": "1/2026",
"severity": "25",
"impact": "1",
"explanation": "Attack without any consequences"{'affected_entities': [{'industry': 'Law Enforcement',
'location': 'Anchorage, Alaska, USA',
'name': 'Anchorage Police Department',
'size': 'Large (serving ~300,000 people)',
'type': 'Government Agency'},
{'customers_affected': 'Multiple agencies nationwide '
'(e.g., municipalities in '
'Washington, New Jersey, '
'Oklahoma, Maine)',
'industry': 'Data Migration',
'name': 'Whitebox Technologies',
'type': 'Technology Service Provider'}],
'customer_advisories': 'APD pledged to notify anyone potentially impacted by '
'the incident',
'data_breach': {'data_exfiltration': 'No evidence of data acquisition by the '
'threat actor'},
'date_detected': '2024-01-07',
'description': 'The Anchorage Police Department (APD) responded to a '
'cyberattack on its technology service provider, Whitebox '
'Technologies, which alerted APD of a security incident on '
"January 7. The city's IT department took immediate actions to "
'mitigate the impact, including shutting down relevant servers '
'and disabling vendor access. No evidence of APD system '
'compromise or data acquisition by the threat actor was found.',
'impact': {'operational_impact': 'Vendor and third-party service provider '
'access disabled',
'systems_affected': 'APD servers'},
'investigation_status': 'Ongoing (led by Whitebox Technologies)',
'references': [{'source': 'Recorded Future News'}],
'response': {'communication_strategy': 'APD pledged to notify anyone '
'potentially impacted by the incident',
'containment_measures': ['Shut down relevant APD servers',
'Disabled vendor and third-party '
'service provider access'],
'enhanced_monitoring': 'Continued oversight of APD systems and '
'close monitoring for unusual activity',
'incident_response_plan_activated': 'Yes',
'remediation_measures': ['Deletion and removal of all remaining '
'APD data from third-party service '
'provider servers']},
'stakeholder_advisories': 'APD is working closely with other Municipal '
'departments to oversee the response and ensure '
'safeguards are in place',
'title': "Cyberattack on Anchorage Police Department's Technology Service "
'Provider',
'type': 'Cyberattack'}