A July 11 ransomware attack affected utility billing software at Alaska’s Petersburg Borough, which disclosed the intrusion more than three months later.
Customer names and utility account numbers were accessible through the affected software, the borough said in a community notice posted Friday. The notice did not establish whether attackers viewed or copied those records.
The borough government serves Petersburg and surrounding areas in Southeast Alaska. The town sits on the northern end of Mitkof Island, about 120 miles south of Juneau.
“Although the Borough has security measures in place, they did not fully prevent the attack,” the notice said.
The borough’s technology provider, Professional Computer Solutions, took steps to stop the attack, secure the network and investigate. Alaska’s Department of Public Safety and the FBI were notified.
Officials said they were advised to limit public disclosure because the attackers might still be monitoring the borough. Employees were informed through hand-delivered notices or individual conversations.
An assembly agenda posted Thursday identified the ransomware attack before Friday’s detailed notice. It called for a closed discussion of network vulnerabilities and security responses at Tuesday’s assembly meeting.
The borough said customer credit card and banking information was not stored on the compromised network and therefore was not accessed during the attack. It did not confirm theft of other customer information.
A separate Oct. 6 notice attributed delayed September utility statements to a server issue. The borough has not linked that delay to the July attack.
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Elsewhere in Alaska, a September cyber incident disrupted North Slope Borough School District’s phones, forcing schools to give families temporary cellphone numbers while classes continued. The district later warned that personal information may have been accessed and reported normal operations by Oct. 5.
Petersburg has not identified the attackers or disclosed a ransom demand or payment.
The borough has not disclosed which billing functions were affected, how long the disruption lasted or when the software was fully restored.
