The Cause: Security Shutdown by Vendor OnSolve
The vendor, OnSolve CodeRED (now Crisis24), has provided no timeline for restoration of service. The CodeRED system was voluntarily taken offline across the United States due to the immediate detection of potential security vulnerabilities in the platform. This action was taken as an urgent, precautionary measure to conduct an extensive security review and patch, and was not a planned test or exercise. The vendor reports that there is currently no indication that customer data was compromised.
Crucial Services Remain Functional
Despite the mass notification failure, Buncombe County Government strongly emphasizes a critical point: the outage does not impact 911 services or emergency response operations. The 911 emergency calling and dispatch network is separate from the third-party CodeRED software and remains fully operational.
Nationwide Problem, Local Differences
The failure of the CodeRED platform is impacting thousands of municipalities across the U.S. that rely on the vendor. Buncombe County is currently exploring alternative alert vendors to quickly restore full service.
This disruption highlights the diverse systems used across Western North Carolina:
Buncombe County: Impacted by the CodeRED nationwide outage.
Neighboring Counties: Areas like Haywood County use different providers (such as Everbridge or Notify Me®) and are therefore not impacted by the CodeRED system's shutdown.
IPAWS/Reverse 911 Workaround Activated
Due to the unknown restoration timeline, the county’s layered communication strategy is fully active:
Requests for critical mass alerts, such as emergency evacuation messages (known as IPAWS or "reverse 911"), are being routed to North Carolina Emergency Management or FEMA for processing.
All updates are being shared across the County’s official website (www.buncombenc.gov), Facebook, Nextdoor, X, and Instagram.
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