FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Fire Chief Jason Gilliland at gillilandj@marbleheadma.gov
MARBLEHEAD — In response to expressed concerns from many residents about the dependability of the Town’s emergency notification capabilities, the Town of Marblehead is providing an update regarding a significant national cybersecurity incident that disrupted the legacy OnSolve CodeRED mass notification system, which is now being operated by Crisis24.
The Town’s vendor, Crisis24, reported in November 2025 that the legacy OnSolve CodeRED environment was the target of a cyber attack. The Town is currently working closely with Crisis24 about ongoing notifications and updates. The Town is also considering options for notification systems to ensure Marblehead has reliable, secure emergency notification capability moving forward.
Per the vendor: To contain the incident and support recovery, the legacy OnSolve CodeRED platform was taken offline and permanently decommissioned. Crisis24 began transitioning customers to a separate replacement environment, branded “CodeREDby Crisis24,” and reported completing a comprehensive security audit and additional third-party security testing and hardening.
The vendor has stated that the incident was contained within the legacy CodeRED environment and did NOT involve municipal networks or other Town information systems. 9-1-1 services were NOT affected by this vendor incident. The vendor advised that migration and restoration rely on backups largely current through March 31, 2025; registrations or updates after that date may not carry over and may require re-enrollment or rebuilding of contact lists and notification settings.
The data breach experienced by the OnSolve CodeRed system has exposed user data, including phone numbers, email addresses, and passwords. The vendor has also shared forensic updates through affected jurisdictions, indicating the exposed information may be more limited in scope, including reports that certain exposed datasets did not include active passwords.
Because the investigation remains ongoing and municipalities may have different configurations and subscriber datasets, residents should remain cautious and follow these steps:
- If you previously created a CodeRED profile/password, change any passwords that were reused across other personal or business accounts.
- Be alert for phishing or scam messages that may impersonate the Town, public safety agencies, or notification vendors.
- Confirm Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are enabled on your mobile device (WEA is separate from CodeRED and continues to operate during vendor outages).
- Monitor your accounts and personal information for suspicious activity and report suspected fraud through appropriate channels.
Additional information, including any required steps for residents to enroll or re-enroll, will be shared as the Town’s transition progresses.
Residents with questions or concerns are encouraged to visit the Town of Marblehead website or contact the Fire Chief’s Office.
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