South Staffordshire PLC, a company that supplies water to Staffordshire and surrounding counties, has been hit by a cyber-attack.

According to the company, which owns South Staffs Water and Cambridge Water, it had its corporate IT network disrupted by the attack.

“This incident has not affected our ability to supply safe water and we can confirm we are still supplying safe water to all of our Cambridge Water and South Staffs Water customers,” the company said in a statement.

“This is thanks to the robust systems and controls over water supply and quality we have in place at all times as well as the quick work of our teams to respond to this incident and implement the additional measures we have put in place on a precautionary basis.”

It added that its customer service teams are operating as usual.

“We are working closely with the relevant government and regulatory authorities and will keep them, as well as our customers, updated as our investigations continue.”

Was Cl0p Behind the Staffordshire Water Cyber-Attack?

While the company has not confirmed the cyber-attack was ransomware, the attack comes at the same time as hacker group ‘Cl0p’ began circulating claims it was behind the attack. It has posted what it said are identification documents from the company on its darknet site.

Stolen data includes scans of passport, drivers’ licences, spreadsheets, and screenshots of wastewater treatment user interfaces. In total, it claims to have stolen 5TB of data.

Complicating the matter is that Cl0p appears to have misattributed the stolen data to Thames Water. However, the documents published on its platform identify them as coming from South Staffs Water.

“Thames Water [sic] supply much of critical water services to people and companies,” a Cl0p statement reads. “Companies like this have much responsibility and we contact them and tell them that they have very bad holes in their systems. All systems.

“We spent months in the company system and saw first-hand evidence of very bad practice. This company is all for money and not deliver reliable service.”

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However, the hackers claim they have not encrypted South Staffordshire PLC’s data, only exfiltrating it and demanding payment. Cl0p claims it is against targeting healthcare or critical infrastructure groups.

In addition, the hackers claim that parties negotiating on South Staffordshire PLC’s behalf have offered a small amount of money for the data, which Cl0p branded a ‘joke’. They have also offered to explain how they accessed the company’s systems.

Commenting on the South Staffordshire Water cyber-attack, CEO and Co-founder of CyberSmart Jamie Akhtar: “Although this attack appears to have been relatively benign, it does set a worrying precedent.

“We don’t know how truthful the hackers’ claims that they could ‘easily change the chemical balance of the water’ are. However, it is something a sophisticated attack could achieve, even with many water companies having robust protections in place.

“In an age where cyber warfare has become much more common, we should all be on our guard.”

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