WELLINGTON SHUTS DOWN SERVERS AFTER DATA BREACH

Billing vendor tells village of software ‘vulnerabilities.’

WELLINGTON — A possible data breach may have exposed the information of Wellington’s residents and customers, the village said Thursday.

Wellington’s billing vendor, Superion, notified the village Wednesday that the company found “vulnerabilities in their software” for the Click2Gov system after customers reported potential unauthorized charges to credit cards used to pay utility bills, according to a news release.

Once notified, Wellington shut down its Superion connection and started trying to determine what information if any was exposed. Technicians beefed up the village’s hardware and software to take care of any breach, the village said. The online payment system was available again Thursday afternoon, a village spokeswoman said.

Superion was unable to confirm that any customer information was compromised, but Wellington said it decided to notify customers as a precaution.

“We don’t know if it was one, none or a lot,” village manager Paul Schofield said of the number of customers possibly affected.

Potentially at risk is credit card information stored for utility bill payments made from July 2017 to February 2018, including customer names, credit card numbers and expiration dates. Phone payments and payments connected to bank accounts were not affected, Schofield said.

Wellington is one of many municipalities throughout the U.S., including Lake Worth, that use Click2Gov billing software. Schofield did not know if any other clients were affected, and Superion did not immediately return a request for comment.

“These are supposed to be some of the most secure servers in the world,” Schofield said.

The village upgraded its software and security protocols and built a new server. While e-payments are back up and running, customers also can use these methods to pay utility and building department bills:

■ To pay a utility bill, call Customer Service at 561-7914010.

■ To pay a building department bill, call 561-753-2430.

■ To pay either, call the Interactive Voice Response line at 561-753-2418.

■ Pay in person at Village Hall, 12300 Forest Hill Blvd.

■ Utility payments may use the drop box outside Village Hall.

What to do

■ Review credit card statements and report unauthorized charges to the card issuer.

■ Ask your credit card issuer or bank to deactivate your card and issue a new card.

■ Request a fraud alert on your credit file. This will tell creditors to contact you before opening new accounts or changing existing accounts.

■ Request credit reports be sent to you, free of charge, for your review. Even if you do not find any suspicious activity on your credit reports, the Federal Trade Commission recommends you check your credit reports periodically.