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American Water restarting systems shut down a week ago by hackers
American Water Works — among the nation’s biggest water utilities — is restarting systems shut down a week ago after being hacked.
The Camden, New Jersey-based supplier of drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people said it was in the process of “reactivating the systems that were taken offline due to its cybersecurity incident.”
American Water on Monday disclosed the breach of its computer networks and systems, relaying that it became aware of the unauthorized activity the previous Thursday, or October 3. It responded by shutting down its customer portal and pausing billing.
“The company’s customer portal, MyWater, is now operational, and all standard billing processes are resuming,” American Water said late Thursday in a news release, adding that customers will not face late charges for the time the service was paused. Water quality was not affected and there is no indication that its water and wastewater facilities were impacted by the incident, it said.
An investigation into the breach continues and additional steps have been taken to increase the security of its system, American Water stated.
American Water spokesperson Ruben Rodriguez said the company would not elaborate further.
The company has a market capitalization of $26.7 billion, and describes itself as the largest regulated water and wastewater utility in the U.S., operating in 14 states and on 18 military installations. It manages more than 500 water and wastewater systems in about 1,700 communities in California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, according to its website.
U.S. officials have recently become concerned about alleged work by Chinese intelligence officers to breach critical U.S. infrastructure networks such as water-treatment facilities, and tied a cyberattack targeting U.S. broadband providers to the government in Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Why some people in Hurricane Helene’s path didn’t get emergency alerts
Zoe Dadian’s front yard became a front line when the remnants of Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic flooding in her community of Swannanoa, North Carolina.
“It’s just like a horror show, just standing there on solid ground while full houses floated by with people sitting on top, like screaming for their lives,” Dadian said.
When the floodwaters receded, neighbors started talking about the warnings that came before.
Severe weather watches and warnings are sent by the National Weather Service, but evacuation orders come from local authorities.
Many use the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System — or IPAWS — which pushes messages to cellphones, TVs and radios in disaster-impacted areas.
Buncombe County, where Dadian lives, sent a mandatory evacuation order out through IPAWS at 6:15 a.m. on Sept. 27.
She said the alert didn’t show up on her phone until hours later — at 1 p.m.
“And at that point, the landslide had occurred,” Dadian said. “We were digging bodies out of rubble, and there was nowhere to evacuate.”
Buncombe County officials said many cell towers were down because of the flooding, which may have delayed the transmission of the evacuation order.
“The cell towers are a critical piece,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said about the challenge of timely alerts during flash floods.
“We need to keep learning on how we can better warn people even if we don’t know exactly where the flash flooding’s going to happen,” Criswell said.
While downed cell towers may have stopped or delayed alerts from reaching everyone, some counties certified to issue IPAWS alerts did not send any, according to a CBS News analysis of available FEMA data. Of 43 counties that experienced deaths during Helene, 29 did not send out alerts using IPAWS.
Brian Toolan, Connecticut’s former emergency operations chief who now builds local alert software, said a county, especially small counties, can get overwhelmed quickly.
“The timelines are going to be critical to understand was there enough time to get an alert out, you know, was there enough time to prepare, you know, and if not, you know, how do we learn from this and make sure this doesn’t happen again?” he said.
CBS News also reviewed FEMA data during Hurricane Milton. At least 46 alerts were sent this week by 14 counties across Florida, including those along the west coast where the storm made landfall and conditions were the most dangerous. At least 25 alerted residents to evacuations.
When counties do send out critical warnings, phones have to be set up to receive them.
If government emergency notifications are turned off, people won’t get alerts sent through IPAWS. If notifications are turned on, people will get IPAWS alerts.
Some counties don’t only use IPAWS. They have their own alert systems that require people to opt in. People won’t get those alerts unless they’ve signed up in advance.
On Dadian’s phone, notifications were turned on, but she wishes she’d known sooner what was going to happen to her community.
“Never in a million years,” Dadian said, “did I imagine that it was going to be something that we weren’t going to be able to weather.”
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“CBS Evening News” headlines for Friday, Oct. 11, 2024
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