[BreachExchange] Pompano Beach warned nearly 4, 000 residents of data breach

[Destry Winant]

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/pompano-beach/fl-ne-pompano-water-bill-breach-20190223-story.html

A data breach at a company that handles the billing for municipal
water service has Pompano Beach city officials working to minimize the
potential damage.

Hackers gained unauthorized access to credit or debit card data stored
with software company CentralSquare and used for one-time online water
bill payments made through the city’s website from Aug. 30 to Dec. 6,
officials said.

There were 3,790 customers who made one-time payments during that time period.

Officials began investigating the incident after a credit card company
notified the city of the possibly fraudulent use of a customer’s
credit card.

The city alerted police about the vendor’s breach in security, checked
their servers for breaches, and installed a new server to end the
threat of more information leaks.

Letters have been mailed to all water customers possibly affected by
the breach detailing what steps to take to report and protect against
the potential misuse of credit and debit card information.

Pompano Beach’s Information Technologies Department is consistently
applying security patches to all city government software, as quickly
as these patches are provided, officials said.

The city has the most up-to-date virus protection and firewall
technology and conducts regular security checks to guard against
information theft, officials said.

The city has set up a phone number 954-786-7944 and e-mail address
PBTreasury at copbfl.com for water customers with questions or concerns.