Utilities Company Urging Customers To Be Alert After Data Breach

Exploit: Data Breach, Unauthorized Access
Company: Alectra Utilities
Industry: Utilities Distributor
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/alectra-breach-1.5393106

A large number of Hamilton residents were affected when a local utilities company data breach compromised an unknown number of customers’ personal data. City staff in Hamilton, ON discovered the leak of information and quickly notified Alectra Utilities. The company claims that there is no evidence of data misuse thus far and the breach did not include customers’ financial information. However, Alectra is still encouraging all of their customers to monitor their accounts closely for unusual activity and to also make sure their passwords used to log in with Alectra aren’t being reused across any other login platforms, especially work or financial logins.

This incident had the potential to be much worse with hackers and third party vendors able to view the data of an unknown number of customers. Heightening cyber security standards and enforcing compliance framework will help companies like Alectra to assess vulnerabilities and weaknesses before gaps in their security are exposed and critical data is lost. For most SMBs, securing customer data has been a neglected and often overlooked area in which unintentional or undetected data leaks occur leaving the door open to full on data breaches and the costs that follow suit.

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