Belize Electricity Limited Boosts Security Measures Amid Unusual Activity

The Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) has been forced to increase their security measures after experiencing what they have classified as, ‘elevated levels of unusual activity’.  The release notes, quote, “Like most modern companies with a well-developed IT infrastructure that interfaces with external parties, BEL experiences continual attempts by external sources to infiltrate our IT systems. Our Cyber Security Systems are configured, and our staff are trained, to identify and protect against these threats that could compromise our IT systems and data.  This week, we have seen increased traffic and unusual activities that have caused us to raise our cyber security alert level. We immediately put measures into effect to seek out and remove any suspicious actors and programs in our IT systems and implemented further preventative action, including the suspension of the BEL 24-7 app and Utilicash services used by our Collection agents. Out of an abundance of caution, we have also engaged an expert external cyber security firm to support our investigations. To the best of our knowledge, no customer information has been compromised, but we will continue to investigate.  We expect to restore the Utilicash services used by our Collection Agents by this afternoon Friday May 19 so that Customers will not have to present their account number when paying bills as they have had to do over the past few days. Our BEL 24-7 app should also be back online by mid next week.  We apologize for the inconvenience to our Customers and the public in general, and we promise to keep you updated as we continue to take action to protect against cyber threats and restore services back to normal.”  End of quote.