A US utility company based in Colorado was hit by a ransomware attack in November that wiped out two decades’ worth of records and knocked out billing systems that won’t be restored until next week at the earliest.
The attack was detailed by the Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA) in a post on its website explaining that current customers won’t be penalised for being unable to pay their bills because of the incident.
“We are a victim of a malicious cyber security attack. In the middle of an investigation, that is as far as I’m willing to go,” DMEA chief exec Alyssa Clemsen Roberts told a public board meeting, as reported by a local paper.
She is said to have confirmed that the co-operative’s billing systems were also taken down by the attackers, telling a local TV station: “And we lost the majority of our historical data for the last 20-25 years. Since then we have been slowly rebuilding our network.”
