Just as we started to relax a little following a few months with no power outages, Joburg prepaid electricity users got a nasty surprise just in time for payday.

Jozi agency City Power was hit by a ransomware attack that encrypted a number of their systems.

This means that prepaid users can’t buy electricity.

In a tweet, City Power said that they hoped to back up and running later today.

News24 has more from the power utility’s spokesperson Isaac Mangena, who confirmed that the virus had attacked City Power’s database and other software, impacting on most of its applications and networks.

The virus has also prevented those who had already bought their electricity from uploading it to their meter boxes.

The City Power website is also affected by the virus.

“It may also affect our response to some outages, as the system to order and dispatch material is affected. City Power IT team has been working since early morning 01:00 to fix this problem,” Mangena said.

They also announced that increased usage during the winter period could result in unplanned outages.

He said plans were in place to deal with unplanned outages. The key focus of the plan was to attend to those areas that experienced repeated unplanned outages on the same day or week, he said.

“We have also increased the number of technicians in areas that are prone to repeated unplanned power outages.

“More teams have been put on standby so that they can be dispatched to attend to outages and respond to emergency calls,” he said.

Once residents are able to load electricity again, they’re encouraged to use it sparingly.

Mangena added that they were hoping to have a solution sorted out by midday, but as of yet it hasn’t been sorted out.

You can keep up to speed with City Power’s announcements via their Twitter account.

Back to the candles we go.

[source:news24]