Following an announcement back in August that South Staffordshire PLC, the parent company of South Staffs Water, had been the target of a criminal cyber-attack, the water company has reported that has led to unauthorised access to some customers’ personal data.
Since the incident South Staffs has been working with leading forensic experts to investigate fully what happened. The investigation has now found that the incident resulted in unauthorised access to some of the personal data the company holds for a subset of its customers.
South Staffs is writing to those customers who have been impacted via letter so that they can take appropriate action. In a Frequently Asked Section page on its website about the cyberattack, South Staffs Water says:
“We have many measures in place to protect our networks and the data we hold. We recognise that personal information is entrusted into our care and regret any inconvenience caused by this incident. Since we detected the incident, we have supplemented these existing measures with additional information security tools.”
The water company has put a full package of support in place for customers who are impacted to ensure they understand fully what has happened and receive the help they need. This includes a special helpline for those customers: the helpline number is in the notification letter. The helpline is available 8am – 6pm Monday to Friday. Customers who are affected are also being offered free credit monitoring for a year.
The investigation into the incident is continuing and the water company is still assessing the potential impact on customer data. If it is established that other customers need to take action South Staffs said it will notify them as soon as possible.
The water company is also working closely with the police and with the relevant government and regulatory authorities and are keeping them updated.
Andy Willicott, Managing Director of South Staffs Water commented:
“Consumers can have complete confidence that the water we supply is safe.
"We understand that customers trust us to keep their data safe and I’d personally like to say sorry to all those customers impacted – we’ll be doing what we can to support you through this."
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