By John Dobberstein, Editor
COWETA — The city of Coweta said it’s fighting the effects of a system-wide ransomware attack, but customer credit card and payment data were not accessed by the perpetrators.
The incident occurred on Wednesday. City officials said they immediately engaged their contracted IT provider and additional cybersecurity professionals, “to secure our systems, prevent further intrusion and begin the recovery process.”
The attack affected all city computers, files and computer-based services, except the city’s website and its third-party online billing portal. City computer systems and files are not operable currently.
The Coweta Police Department and Coweta Fire Department utilize off-site servers like LexisNexis and other systems for processing data, and those systems have not been affected by this attack. Emergency services, including 911, are operating normally.
The city said credit card and other payment data are not kept on city servers and were not accessed in the attack.
“We are working with outside cybersecurity attorneys and IT experts to recover our systems and assess what other data, if any, was accessed,” the city said in its statement. “The attack has been reported to local and state authorities, and reporting to the appropriate federal authorities is in process.”
An offsite backup of city data exists and will be used to restore city computer files and records once systems have been cleared of the ransomware and are ready to be safely restored.
Online bill pay through Xpress Bill Pay remains available through the city website and is safe to use. Xpress Bill Pay is a third-party service that is not hosted on any City of Coweta server and was not affected by the attack. The city website also remains online and is safe to use. It is hosted offsite and was not affected.
Because city computer systems are currently unavailable, credit or debit card utility payments can’t be accepted at City Hall right now. The city can accept payment by check for residents who prefer to pay that way rather than through the online portal.
City staff can also personally assist customers who normally pay their bills in person by card and need help navigating the online bill payment portal.
“We will not turn off anyone’s water for nonpayment while our systems are affected by this attack,” the city said. “We recognize the challenges and inconvenience this disruption is creating for our residents. We are working as quickly and diligently as possible to securely recover our systems, restore our data, and return city services to normal operations.
“We will provide another public update early next week and will continue to provide updates afterward when there are significant new developments to share.”
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