Fresno County internet outage limits public services countywide

A countywide internet outage left Fresno County’s technology services limited Monday, cutting into access to public services across multiple departments and leaving officials with no estimated time for restoration. The disruption began early that morning, and the county’s Information Technology Services Department was working to restore full access.

The outage affected services residents use to deal with County of Fresno government, including birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, property tax, board agendas, board of supervisors information, county jobs, homeless response and public health. County officials said the problem was widespread enough to hit operations countywide, underscoring how dependent public-facing offices are on the county’s network.

The Information Technology Services Department is responsible for mission-critical IT support services across the County of Fresno government organization. That makes the outage more than a technical inconvenience: when the network goes down, it can slow or block routine interactions with county offices that handle records, benefits, employment services and other daily business.

Fresno County has dealt with similar interruptions before. In July 2024, departments were affected by the global CrowdStrike technology outage, and county emergency medical services were among the first local operations to run into trouble. A county ambulance dispatch system was notified at about 11 p.m. the night before the disruptions spread through the region.

The county also posted an internet outage update on July 9, saying most systems seemed to be operational again by 7:15 a.m. That earlier recovery showed county systems can come back quickly, but Monday’s outage again left residents waiting for access to services that depend on stable internet and internal network connections.