IT meltdown causes national government shutdown

Sint Maarten, which used to be part of the Netherlands Antilles, and has a population of just over 42,000, has closed government offices during this bizarre outage.

A local newspaper confirmed a cyber-attack on Monday 2nd April, and that as of today, the Government were still struggling to recover.

PHILIPSBURG – The Ministry of General Affairs hereby informs the public that the recovery process of the Government of Sint Maarten ICT Network is progressing steadily and will continue throughout the upcoming weekend following the cyber-attack on Monday April 2nd.

Upon completion of the assessment, the ICT Department is taking all necessary precautions during the recovery process. Thus, all departments that render service to the public will remain closed. An update will be given to the public on Sunday evening April 8th as to the progress made with the restoration of the ICT Network.

Update: as of 10:38am Monday 9th April the Government confirmed on Facebook that offices remained closed to the public.