The largest water and wastewater utility in the U.S. announced Monday that it was hit by a cyberattack that has disrupted customers’ access to its billing and payment platform.
American Water, which is based in Camden, New Jersey, and operates water and wastewater services in about 1,700 communities in 14 states as well as at 18 U.S. military installations, says on its website that it’s the largest water utility in the U.S. and serves more than 14 million people.
It said in a release that it detected “unauthorized activity” in its computer networks and systems on Thursday, Oct. 3, and deactivated its systems to protect data and prevent further harm.
“American Water recently learned of unauthorized activity in our computer networks and systems which we determined to be the result of a cybersecurity incident,” the company said. “As part of our response, we proactively took our customer portal service, MyWater, offline, which means we are pausing billing until further notice. We are working diligently to bring our systems back online safely and securely.”
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“Our dedicated team of professionals are working around the clock to investigate the nature and scope of the incident. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this incident may cause and we are working diligently to remediate and to bring these systems back online in a safe and secure manner,” American Water added.
The company said it activated its incident response protocols and has brought in third-party cybersecurity professionals to “assist with containment, mitigation and an investigation into the scope and nature of the incident.”
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American Water added that it notified law enforcement and is “coordinating fully with them” in response to the cyber incident.
The company said on its website that it doesn’t believe any of its water or wastewater facilities or operations have been negatively affected by the incident, and that the water is safe to drink.
Customers won’t face late charges or have services shut off while American Water’s MyWater billing portal is offline.
American Water manages over 500 water and wastewater systems around the country that treat and deliver over one billion gallons of water per day.
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States where American Water operates include its home state of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, California and Hawaii.
