Auburn is cutting ties with its old emergency alert vendor after a data breach and system outage left town officials scrambling for ways to reach residents. In its place, the town is rolling out a homegrown-branded system called Alert Auburn, which will ask residents and businesses to sign up all over again once registration opens. During the downtime that pushed officials to make the switch, most emergency updates were pushed out through social media and town posts instead of the usual multi-channel alerts. Town leaders say the new setup is meant to restore those broader notifications and give them tighter control over what gets sent, and how.
According to a Facebook update from Town of Auburn, the town canceled its contract with the CodeRED platform and signed a new agreement with Motorola's Rave Alert system. The post explains that Auburn's Rave account currently holds a "corrupted data file that requires rebuilding," which means every previous subscriber will have to re-register once Alert Auburn is live. Staff are in the final stages of training on the new system, and officials say they will begin publicizing the sign-up link in the coming weeks.
CodeRED Outage Behind the Shakeup
The move comes on the heels of a nationwide disruption in the legacy OnSolve CodeRED environment in November 2025, which forced many local governments to shut down that older platform and either rebuild or migrate their alert lists. The outage left some agencies without newer signup data and pushed municipalities to lean on social media for urgent notices, which is not exactly anyone's first choice in an emergency. That pattern has been documented in local government reporting, including coverage from Conduit Street. Municipal alerts such as Black Mountain's notice to residents have described similar fallout.
How Alert Auburn Will Work
Auburn says the replacement system will carry the local branding of Alert Auburn but run on Motorola Solutions' Rave Alert platform. The software supports texts, phone calls, email and targeted geographic messaging, so officials can zero in on certain neighborhoods when needed instead of blasting the entire town. Motorola's product information highlights multi-channel delivery, geofencing and reporting tools that help agencies verify how far their messages actually go. The town has told residents it will start promoting the registration portal as staff wrap up training, according to the Town of Auburn update.
What Residents Should Do Now
Once the new sign-up portal opens, residents and businesses will need to re-enroll with current phone numbers and email addresses, and pick their preferred alert options. Officials also suggest people consider changing any passwords they reused on older alert accounts. Municipal notices elsewhere after the CodeRED disruption urged password updates and extra caution around phishing attempts, and some jurisdictions warned that the vendor's backups only covered data through March 31, 2025, which meant later signups were often lost. Anyone who needs local help or has questions can contact the Select Board office at 508-832-7720.
What This Means for Local Government Security
Town officials are framing the change as a risk-management move. When a third-party vendor gets hit with a cybersecurity incident, the basic question becomes how quickly a local government can still reach its residents. In response to the same national incident, other cities and counties have already approved replacement platforms or launched procurement reviews, signaling a broader trend toward tighter oversight of emergency-communications contracts. For now, Auburn will keep posting public updates through its regular official channels while staff finish training and the Alert Auburn registration site is readied for launch.
