CORNWALL, Ontario – FortisOntario, Cornwall Electric’s parent company, issued a warning on Wednesday, March 17 that a third party contractor that handles billing for some of its subsidiaries, including Cornwall Electric, was a victim of a ransomware attack and some sensitive customer information may have been exposed.
“At this point, we are not aware of any personal information of our customers that has been inappropriately accessed,” reads a statement from FortisOntario. “FortisOntario has engaged an internal team to investigate the cyber event and is in contact with the third-party contractor. FortisOntario can confirm that if personal information has been accessed, it would be limited to customer names, addresses, electrical consumption and other information on bills or used for electronic billing services. We can confirm that no additional customer information (such as banking information) was accessed during the cyber event.”
FortisOntario states that they were made aware of the breach on Sunday, March 14 and can confirm that no other data other than billing information was accessed.
“At FortisOntario the security of customer data is taken very seriously,” says John Sander, Manager, Customer Engagement at FortisOntario. “While we are not aware of any customer data being accessed, we felt it was prudent to let our customers know of the event and to assure our customers that we are working with the third-party contractor to investigate this situation.”
FortisOntario is asking customers to remain vigilant of any suspicious activity on their accounts. If a Cornwall Electric customer notices any suspicious notifications or activity on their accounts they are asked to call (613) 932-0123.
