Midland, Texas, Joins Growing List of Cities Affected by the Superion Breach

(TNS) —The city of Midland, Texas, on Monday reported a potential security breach of the utility billing online payment platform, administered by Superion.

The city reports learning of the possible breach on Friday. Superion’s Click2Gov function is the payment server used to make online payments for utilities. The security breach, according to the city, affected users who made one-time, online payments between December 2017 and June 2018. Residents who have online automatic payment set-up, or who paid with an e-check or bank account routing number during this period were not compromised in the breach.

Upon receiving notice from Superion, the city shut down the online utility billing payment server. The vulnerability in Superion’s Click2Gov function is believed to be widespread. Other cities potentially affected include Beaumont, Oceanside, California, and Goodyear, Arizona.

The city reports its online bill-pay will be back up in the coming days. In the meantime, payments can be made in person at Midland City Hall or via check through the mail. For accounts that are currently set up with auto bill-pay, payments will continue to be processed.

Steps can be taken by customers who believe they may have been affected by the data breach:

• Check credit card accounts for unauthorized or suspicious charges;
• Report any unauthorized charges to credit card issuers and banks;
• Ask credit card issuers and banks to deactivate cards and issue new cards;
• Request a fraud alert to be placed on credit file.

A fraud alert tells creditors to contact a person before they open any new accounts or change existing accounts. A person may call any one of the three major credit bureaus. As soon as one credit bureau confirms a fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts. The initial fraud alert stays on a person’s credit report for 90 days. A person can renew it after 90 days.

©2018 the Midland Reporter-Telegram (Midland, Texas) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.