West Midlands water supplier suffers criminal cyber attack
South Staffs Water says it is still providing a 'safe service'.
South Staffordshire PLC, the parent company of South Staffs Water and Cambridge Water, has confirmed it has been the target of a criminal cyber attack.
The supplier provides drinking water to approximately 1.3 million people, as well as around 35,000 commercial customers - covering 1,500 km² in the West Midlands, South Staffordshire, South Derbyshire, North Warwickshire and North Worcestershire areas.
'Our number one priority is to continue to maintain safe public water supplies.'
The company says its number one priority is to continue to maintain safe public water supplies. In a statement it said:
'This incident has not affected our ability to supply safe water and we can confirm we are still supplying safe water to all of our Cambridge Water and South Staffs Water customers.
This is thanks to the robust systems and controls over water supply and quality we have in place at all times as well as the quick work of our teams to respond to this incident and implement the additional measures we have put in place on a precautionary basis.'
The disruption has affected its corporate IT network and the supplier says its teams are working to resolve this as quickly as possible.
Customer service teams are also operating as usual.
The company is working closely with the relevant government and regulatory authorities and says it will keep them, as well as customers, updated as investigations continue.