City emails have made the final switch to .gov

Published on April 17, 2023

As of April 17, 2023, emails sent to the menlopark.org email domain will no longer accept incoming email. This is one of the final steps in the City's transition to the .gov domain which began last fall. The City website domain changed to menlopark.gov on Oct. 31, 2022, and in early December 2022, emails from City staff and elected officials began sending from the menlopark.gov domain.

Over the past few months, both addresses were maintained to allow for the smooth transition, but now we've reached the final cutoff date and all emails sent to the City of Menlo Park must be sent to the proper menlopark.gov email addresses. 

The switch to the .gov domain provides further assurance to the public that the information found at menlopark.gov or coming from a menlopark.gov email address is official, trusted information.

In order to receive the .gov domain, the City of Menlo Park had to register as a government entity and submit evidence to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), part of the Department of Homeland Security, proving that it is truly registering on behalf of a legitimate local, county or state government. The new .gov domain also makes it more difficult for malicious actors and scammers to co-opt government websites. Using less secure domains such as .com or .org allows cybercriminals and malicious actors to more easily impersonate government officials in attempts to defraud the public.

The shift to the .gov top level domain is part of a long-range federal initiative to increase security and counter foreign disinformation that began about over two years ago with the passage of the DotGov Act of 2020, which shifted responsibility for managing the .gov domain from the General Services Administration to CISA.