GPL-system hacked, ransom demanded

There is confirmation that the systems of Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) came under a cyber-attack last week. Demands were made to the state-owned company for payments to release control of the systems but GPL refused to buckle.

As of Wednesday, the E-billing site allowed users to log in but the account information remained down. Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer, Albert Gordon, admitted that “an incident” had occurred but GPL’s backup had kicked in. Last week, the collections system was down for a while, he said. Asked specifically to confirm reports that a ransom was last week made, Gordon said, “Let me not be that specific but there was something that would have led to that.” GPL is reportedly using a Chinese built fiberoptic cable network for some of its system. There have been concerns about the technology of Huawei, a Chinese communication giant that has been doing work around the globe. It is under the microscope now.

According to Director of GPL’s Information Technology Department, Vijay Datadin, said last week, there was a “bit of a problem. Some systems were down due to precautionary actions,” he said. There was some trouble on part of the systems and to protect the integrity, GPL’s IT team isolated parts of it and have been working to bring them back online. According to Datadin, there are indeed growing cyber threats that are emerging, but GPL has been looking at the situation and taking advice, even working with government teams. He said that the Customer Information System is up and running. The financial system of GPL is intact with suppliers and workers being paid as normal. Customers who have prepaid meters were not affected, he said.

(Kaieteur News)