2024-10-07 American Water Works Company, Inc. Cybersecurity Incident

Page last updated on October 10, 2024

American Water Works Company, Inc. initially disclosed a cybersecurity incident in an SEC 8-K filing on 2024-10-07 06:11:00 EDT.

Company Summary

American Water provides water and wastewater utility services, ensuring the supply and treatment of water for residential, commercial, and industrial customers.

Incident Details

Material: Unknown
Is Breach: Unknown
Records Compromised: Unknown
Data Types Impacted: No Data Types Tracked (yet)

Compromised Date:
Detected Date: 2024-10-03
Disclosure Date: 2024-10-07
Contained Date:
Recovered Date:

Attack Goal: Unknown

Costs: No Costs Tracked (yet)

Filings

8-K filed on 2024-10-07

American Water Works Company, Inc. filed an 8-K at 2024-10-07 06:11:00 EDT
Accession Number: 0001193125-24-233300

Item 8.01 Other Events.

On October 3, 2024, American Water Works Company, Inc. (the “Company”) learned of unauthorized activity within its computer networks and systems, which the Company determined to be the result of a cybersecurity incident. Upon learning of this activity, the Company immediately activated its incident response protocols and third-party cybersecurity experts to assist with containment and mitigation activities and to investigate the nature and scope of the incident. The Company also promptly notified law enforcement and is coordinating fully with them. The Company has taken and will continue to take steps to protect its systems and data, including disconnecting or deactivating certain of its systems. The Company currently believes that none of its water or wastewater facilities or operations have been negatively impacted by this incident. Although the Company is currently unable to predict the full impact of this incident, the Company does not expect the incident will have a material effect on the Company, or its financial condition or results of operations.

8-K filed on 2024-10-10

American Water Works Company, Inc. filed an 8-K at 2024-10-10 17:00:33 EDT
Accession Number: 0001410636-24-000179

Item 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosure.

On October 10, 2024, American Water Works Company, Inc. (the “Company”), issued a press release to provide an update regarding its previously announced cybersecurity incident that it first reported via Current Report on Form 8-K as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on October 7, 2024. A copy of this press release has been included as Exhibit 99.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated by reference in response to this Item 7.01. Although the Company is currently unable to predict the full impact of this incident, the Company does not expect that the incident will have a material effect on the Company, or its financial condition or results of operations.

Exhibit No. 99.1

Press Release, dated October 10, 2024, issued by American Water Works Company, Inc.

American Water Reactivating Systems After Cyber Event

Camden, N.J. - OCTOBER 10, 2024 - American Water (NYSE: AWK), the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the U.S., announced today that it is in the process of methodically and securely reconnecting and reactivating the systems that were taken offline due to its cybersecurity incident communicated on Oct. 7.

The Company continues to have no indication that its water and wastewater facilities were impacted by this incident. The incident did not affect water quality.

The company’s customer portal, MyWater, is now operational, and all standard billing processes are resuming. As a reminder to our customers, there will be no late charges during the short period when our customer and billing platform was unavailable.

The reactivation of systems was initiated in line with the company’s ongoing cyber incident response protocols after internal and external security teams confirmed the systems were secure.

The investigation into the nature and scope of the incident by a dedicated team of professionals and law enforcement is ongoing. Investigations of this nature take time, and the company will share any additional information as, and when, appropriate.

American Water takes the cybersecurity of its systems and related data with utmost seriousness and has taken additional steps to strengthen the cybersecurity of its systems. Our customers remain our highest priority. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this has caused and appreciate our customers’ patience over the past few days.

The most up-to-date information relating to the incident can be found at www.amwater.com/corp/.

Company Information