The British company Southern Water, which provides water supply and drainage in England, reported financial losses of £4.5 million ($5.7 million) as a result of a cyber attack in early 2024.
The company controls an extensive infrastructure, daily supplying 570 million liters of water through a network of almost 14 thousand kilometers long and processing more than 1.5 billion liters of wastewater through a sewer system with a length of over 40 thousand kilometers. In 2024, cybercriminals managed to penetrate the company’s IT systems, compromising data from a limited number of servers.
The attack was carried out by the Black Basta group, specialized in extortion attacks and known for targeting critical infrastructure. Despite Southern Water’s assurances that the incident did not impact operational processes and client systems, the investigation and aftermath cost the company millions of pounds.
According to the financial report from Southern Water, dealing with the cyber breaches incurred significant expenses in hiring IT specialists, legal consultants, and notifying affected users. Additionally, a data breach may result in further reputation and legal costs.
From leaked internal chats of Black Basta, it was revealed that the hackers allegedly demanded a ransom of £750,000 ($950,000) on February 12, 2024. Initially, the attackers asked for $3.5 million, but by the end of February, the name of Southern Water disappeared from the extortionists’ website, suggesting a possible agreement.
However, Southern Water representatives did not confirm any ransom payment. In official statements, the company reiterated previous comments, leaving the question of a potential agreement with the hackers open. The company also mentioned that it continues to monitor the dark web for possible leaks of customer data, but has not found any so far.