BreachExchange mailing list archives
ONWASA ’99 percent’ back to normal after cyber attack
From: Destry Winant <destry () riskbasedsecurity com>
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2019 08:23:55 -0500
https://www.jdnews.com/news/20190402/onwasa-99-percent-back-to-normal-after-cyber-attack Onslow Water and Sewer Authority is “99 percent” back to normal operations, the authority’s director says. Following a cyber attack last October, when hackers encrypted several ONWASA systems with ransomware, the organization has been fixing what was broken and ramping up security measures. “We are for most places effectively back to normal,” Jeff Hudson, executive director of ONWASA, said. “We are better than back to normal.” Hudson said there were new solutions in place to prevent further such attacks, and different types of backups established to preserve company and consumer data. While ONWASA had backups in place prior to the attack, they were housed in the Northwest Water Reclamation Facility. The flooding of that plant following Hurricane Florence led to issues with the backups, and ONWASA was attacked shortly thereafter. “I don’t believe in coincidence,” Hudson said, adding that it’s reasonable for hackers to think organizations are weaker following a natural disaster. The investigation into who is responsible for the hack continues. ONWASA has been working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the State of North Carolina, and several technology security companies, The Daily News reported. Representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to comment on the investigation. The supervisory control and data acquisition software at the Summerhouse Plant is still being worked on, Hudson said. The software would allow the company to manage operations remotely, Hudson said, but for now they are operating manually onsite. The remote access should be up and running in the next two-to-three weeks, he estimated. At no point was customers’ data endangered by the ransomware, Hudson reiterated, and at no point did ONWASA stop providing services to the community. “We have state of the art new software and hardware,” Hudson said. “I’m confident that we are as secure as any of our contemporaries can be.” _______________________________________________ BreachExchange mailing list sponsored by Risk Based Security BreachExchange () lists riskbasedsecurity com If you wish to Edit your membership or Unsubscribe you can do so at the following link: https://lists.riskbasedsecurity.com/listinfo/breachexchange
Current thread:
- ONWASA ’99 percent’ back to normal after cyber attack Destry Winant (Apr 05)