A U.S. utility company in Colorado was hit by a ransomware attack in November. The attack erased 20 years of records and destroyed a billing system that won’t be restored until next week at the earliest.
The Delta-Montrose Electrical Association (DMEA) detailed the attack in an article on its website. website Explain that existing customers will not be penalized for failing to pay their bills due to the incident.
“We are victims of malicious cybersecurity attacks. During the investigation, I am willing to do so,” DMEA CEO Alyssa Clemsen Roberts said at a public board meeting because Local newspaper report.
She is said to have confirmed that the cooperative’s billing system was also shut down by the attackers and told the local TV station: “We have lost most of the historical data for the past 20 to 25 years. Since then, we have been slowly rebuilding our network.”
According to reports, the billing system will not be re-established until next week, nearly a month after the attack.
Other local newspapers are preferred Report The November 16 attack occurred more than a week after the November 7 attack.
The company said: “DMEA has discovered that unauthorized third parties are specifically trying to access parts of our internal network system.” statement On its website. “As a result, DMEA lost 90% of its internal network functions, and a large part of our data, such as saved documents, spreadsheets and forms, were damaged. It also affected our phone calls and emails.”
“We have completed the first few weeks of the investigation,” it added, “and are very confident that no sensitive member or employee information has been compromised. Our external power grid and fiber optic network were also not affected by this incident.
Thankfully, it added: “Our power grid and fiber optic network were not affected by the incident.”
Although the company did not mention the term “ransomware,” this particular malicious behavior has had a devastating impact on the victims. As is typical in ransomware cleanup, DMEA stated that it is working with “forensic and cybersecurity experts to investigate the scope of the incident.” ®
