Village of Franklin Falls Victim to Cyber Crime
(Charlie Haviland December 15, 2025)
Franklin, MI – Franklin Village last month was victimized by an external cyber attack which targeted monies from a municipal account, according to village President David Goldberg.
“I can… assure you that as part of this no private information concerning any residents has been breached or disclosed. So this wasn’t a data breach and the village will be arranging cyber security training immediately for our staff,” Goldberg said in a two minute announcement during the village’s four hour regular December 8 council meeting.
Franklin Village is a 2.7 square mile enclave west of Telegraph and south of 14 Mile Road with a population of little more than 3000.
“Village staff noticed the withdrawals shortly after they occurred,” Goldberg said, “and the effected banks, the FBI, and the village’s insurance carrier were notified immediately.”
Goldberg didn’t quantify the breach in dollars or explain how the money was taken. Though he did add, “I know that many of you understandably have questions about this but, unfortunately, because this is a legal and a criminal matter subject to ongoing investigations, we’ve been advised to not discuss it further at this time and I ask you to please accept my apologies for this. This isn’t something we like. But we will be providing an update as soon as we are able to do so. …hopefully we will be getting some more information from all of the various bodies that we’re working with including our insurance carrier in due course.”
“I can tell you is that these phishing scams are from very sophisticated individuals and other municipalities and private organizations have also been similarly impacted,” Goldberg said.
In November 2024, cyber bandits stole $29 million from White Lake Township – population 32,000 – during a municipal bond closing. The theft stalled construction of a new civic center which included a town hall and a public safety campus to house fire and police. Most of those funds were recovered, although the township lost up to $7 million in the cyber attack.
In 2018 the City of the Village of Clarkston was a victim of ransomware, and City Manager Jonathan Smith shared the experience with local government leaders across the state at a 2022 Michigan Municipal League conference. During the training, Smith said he would not have imagined hackers targeting such a tiny town. “If you are a small community, don’t think ‘they won’t come after me.’ You’re a target because you are vulnerable. You don’t have the protection, that makes you a target.”
Attacks like municipal phishing, cyber attacks, data breaches, and ransomware – a type of malware that encrypts a victim’s personal data until a ransom is paid – are not a new frontier but the sophistication of methods by perpetrators on financial and organizational platforms far outpaces organizational training for cyber security.
According to the US General Accounting Office, collection of cyber crime data is incomplete, in part, because cyber crime is undefined or differently categorized depending on the jurisdiction or law enforcement agency.
Goldberg said that in addition to cyber security training being arranged for village administrative staff, that the village will be forthcoming with additional information as the investigations allow.
Oakland County Times reached out to Goldberg who refrained from additional comment. None of the village council responded to requests for comment.
