From the HERE City State Desk
An unauthorized third party gained access to account information for roughly 300,000 Georgia Power customers through the utility’s online customer portal, parent company Southern Company says.
In all, about 400,000 customers across Southern Company’s utilities were affected. The company says roughly 100,000 of Alabama Power’s 1.6 million accounts were involved, and Mississippi Power is also named in its public notice, though no number has been released for those customers.
According to the notice, the exposed information includes customers’ names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or the last four digits of Social Security numbers, along with other basic account details. The company says the intruder did not get bank account numbers, payment card numbers or driver’s license numbers.
Southern Company says it took immediate steps to stop the activity once it was detected and has contacted law enforcement. It has not said when the intrusion happened or how the attacker got into the portal.
Affected customers are being notified by mail and email officials noted and offered a year of free credit monitoring.
Southern Company is an Atlanta-based energy holding company that serves more than 9 million customers through officials noted electric utilities in three states and natural gas officials noted distribution businesses in four its electric subsidiaries officials noted are georgia power alabama power and mississippi power. In a statement, the company said an unauthorized third party accessed certain officials noted limited information about the accounts of approximately 400,000 customers and that it engaged law enforcement after stopping the activity.
