Water Bills To Flow Again, 3 Months After Baltimore Cyberattack

BALTIMORE, MD — Water bills have started flowing once again after Baltimore City was hit by a ransomware attack that crippled its network for three months. The attack happened May 6, and water bills began trickling out to residents Aug. 7, according to the Baltimore City Department of Public Works.

The city is issuing bills in batches of 10,000 a day, public works officials reported. These bills will reflect charges for April, May, June and July.

When the attack first occurred, residents were unable to pay their water bills or parking tickets, and real estate agents could not process settlement transactions. City email services went offline, and city offices created Gmail addresses instead.

Despite many capabilities going offline in the aftermath of the ransomware attack — including email and phone systems — public works officials say: "The water meters were able to continue to read water consumption and send data."

Residents should anticipate larger-than-usual bills.

"In order to catch up to where billing stopped, the bill that you are receiving today covers a longer billing period than the typical cycle," says a letter sent with water bills from the city. "There is a larger than normal total amount due. It does NOT include any late fees due to bills missed during the ransomware outage. Please review the information on the back of this document explaining the charges/fees on this catch-up bill."

There are several resources to assist with water bill payments for qualifying residents:

• Baltimore H20 Assists
• Low-Income Water Bill Assistance Program
• Water bill payment plans

Those with questions about their bills can call the Department of Public Works Customer Support and Service Division at 410-396-5398.

What Happened After The Ransomware Attack

Initially, people were told to send any payments that had not yet made it to City Hall.

"Payment of outstanding water bills can be done by sending a check or money order along with bill statements to the Director of Finance to the following address: 200 Holliday Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202. You may also drop off a check here," the Baltimore Department of Public Works reported on Monday, May 20.

But people could not get help with questions.

"The email outage has also taken down phone lines to Customer Support and Services, so for now we're unable to take calls to discuss water billing issues. Sorry for the inconvenience," the city's public works department tweeted.

Residents were advised to budget accordingly.

With the network down, we cannot look up individual account info. Please continue to budget for typical water consumption. https://t.co/JwYWKy3U9p
— BaltimoreDPW (@BaltimoreDPW) May 20, 2019

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