Ransomware Causes Disruptions at Johannesburg Power Company
City Power, the power company in the South African city of Johannesburg, has suffered serious disruptions after its systems became infected with a piece of ransomware.
The electricity provider and local authorities informed residents on Twitter that a “ransomware virus” encrypted all its databases and applications, and impacted most of its network. The incident, which began early on Thursday morning (local time), has caused the company’s website and electricity vending systems to become unavailable, preventing many from acquiring electricity units and leaving them in the dark.
City Power customers are provided prepaid power meters and the amount of electricity they can consume depends on how many electricity units they acquire and upload to their meters. Roughly six hours after the incident was first announced, the City of Johannesburg said on Twitter that most of the impacted applications and networks had been cleaned up and restored, but the City Power website and systems designed to allow suppliers to upload invoices remained offline.
