Up to 10,000 City of Topeka customers possibly affected in potential cyberattack

The City of Topeka said Monday it has been a potential victim of a cyberattack and has identified up to 10,000 customers who may have been affected by the data breach.

City spokeswoman Molly Hadfield said Monday the city was notified of the incident by its utility billing payment system software vendor, Central Square, on Friday afternoon.

The potential data breach hasn’t been confirmed at this time, Hadfield said.

The breach occurred between Oct. 31 and Dec. 7 and would affect any city utilities customer who made a one-time payment or set up autopay during that time. E-checks and customers who set up autopay before Oct. 31 won’t be affected, the city said.

Central Square has turned over the information to a forensics investigator to confirm the potential breach. The staff worked with the software vendor on Friday to transition the current online payment system to a more secure platform, as advised by the vendor. On Saturday, the city’s information technology staff went through the data breach system and didn’t find any malicious activity.