Prepaid electricity sales disrupted by ‘cyber attack’

Residents and businesses across several Eastern Cape municipalities, includingBuffalo City Metro(BCM), were left unable to buy prepaid electricity over the weekend after a technical failure linked to an attemptedcyber attackdisrupted online vending systems. The outage affected consumers in BCM, Alfred Nzo District, Ndlambe, and the Amahlathi municipalities, among others. Utilities World, a service provider to several municipalities across the country, on Monday attributed the disruption to “an attempted hack” on its system in the early hours of Sunday.

While the company said the attempted breach occurred early on Sunday morning, some BCM residents reported being unable to buy electricity from as early as Friday evening. We can confirm that there was an attempt to hack our system, but fortunately this did not succeed because of our quick response By Monday afternoon, affected municipalities said the system had been restored, though intermittent problems were still reported in parts of Mdantsane, Zwelitsha and Phakamisa. Utilities World spokesperson Toni Sanna confirmed the attempted cyber attack.

“We can confirm that there was an attempt to hack our system, but fortunately this did not succeed because of our quick response.” She said the attempted attack was detected by the company’s team, which then shut down its servers as a precautionary measure to ensure that the integrity and protection of their data remained intact. The shutdown meant customers in certain areas were unable to buy electricity through vending sites, banking apps or municipal offices. “Throughout Sunday, the company identified and eliminated the threat. “The servers have been restored and vending in the distribution channel will recommence in stages.