Veolia North America faced a Ransomware Attack that caused disruptions to the bill payment systems. The Veolia ransomware attack forced the organization to shut down systems to contain the breach.
Veolia North America, a subsidiary of the global conglomerate Veolia, has recently experienced a ransomware attack. This incident has specifically affected systems within its Municipal Water division, causing disruptions to its bill payment systems. Veolia North America is a prominent provider of water and wastewater services, serving approximately 550 communities and offering industrial water solutions at around 100 industrial facilities. Their extensive operations include the daily treatment of over 2.2 billion gallons of water and wastewater across 416 facilities in the United States and Canada. The transnational Veolia group has almost 213,000 employees globally and generated €42.9 billion in revenue in 2022, providing drinking water to around 111 million people and wastewater services to roughly 97 million. The same year, Veolia produced nearly 44 terawatt-hours of energy and treated 61 million metric tons of waste.
Veolia North America, a subsidiary of the global conglomerate Veolia, has recently experienced a ransomware attack. This incident has specifically affected systems within its Municipal Water division, causing disruptions to its bill payment systems. Veolia North America is a prominent provider of water and wastewater services, serving approximately 550 communities and offering industrial water solutions at around 100 industrial facilities. Their extensive operations include the daily treatment of over 2.2 billion gallons of water and wastewater across 416 facilities in the United States and Canada. The transnational Veolia group has almost 213,000 employees globally and generated €42.9 billion in revenue in 2022, providing drinking water to around 111 million people and wastewater services to roughly 97 million. The same year, Veolia produced nearly 44 terawatt-hours of energy and treated 61 million metric tons of waste.
Veolia North America Took Immediate Measures to Contain the Breach
Upon detecting the attack, Veolia promptly responded by implementing defensive measures, including temporarily shutting down certain systems in order to contain the cyber-security incident. Veolia is actively collaborating with law enforcement agencies and engaging the expertise of third-party forensics experts to conduct a thorough assessment of the attack’s impact on its operations and systems. This partnership aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the extent of the breach.“In response to this incident, we implemented defensive measures, including taking the targeted back-end systems and servers offline until they could be restored. As a result, some customers experienced delays when using our online bill payment systems,” Veolia said in a statement.Veolia has successfully restored the back-end systems and servers that were taken offline immediately after the ransomware attack. As a result, customers’ payments will not be impacted, and normal operations have resumed. Veolia is committed to ensuring minimal disruption to its customers’ payment processes.
“Any payments made during this event have been applied, and customer accounts should reflect the most updated information. Customers will not be penalized for late payments or charged interest on their bills due to this service interruption.”
Veolia Ransomware Attack Did Not Affect Water Treatment and Services
Fortunately, the ransomware attack on Veolia has not affected its water treatment operations or wastewater services. These critical functions remain unaffected, ensuring the continued provision of reliable services to its customers. Veolia has taken appropriate measures to safeguard the integrity and continuity of its essential operations amidst the attack.“This incident seems to have been confined to our internal back-end systems at Veolia North America, and there is no evidence to suggest it affected our water or wastewater treatment operations,”
