SOUTHERN Company has disclosed a data breach affecting around 400,000 customers who used its online customer portal. The incident primarily involved utility account information rather than payment data. About 300,000 of the affected records belong to Georgia Power customers, with roughly 100,000 from Alabama Power; Mississippi Power is also named as affected, though no figure has been released.
The company says an unauthorised third party accessed limited information linked to affected accounts and that the intrusion has been contained, with law enforcement engaged.
The compromised data, based on the public notice, includes customers’ names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, and other basic account details. Crucially, the attacker is not reported to have accessed bank account numbers, payment card numbers, or driver’s licence numbers. Southern Company has begun notifying impacted customers by mail and email and is offering a year of free credit monitoring.
The organisation has not specified when the intrusion occurred or how the portal was breached. The notice emphasises that steps were taken promptly to stop the activity once detected.