Water board recovers SMS system after security breach

Colombo, June 9 (Daily Mirror) - The National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) announced that the recent security breach of its SMS communication system has been fully recovered, though it will take a few more days to restore the NWSDB SelfCare mobile app, officials said.

Speaking to Daily Mirror, NWSDB Analysis Programmer Namal Wijewardana confirmed that all ports connected to the SMS system were immediately blocked upon receiving information about the breach on June 1.

An additional security layer is now being introduced to strengthen both the SMS communication system and the mobile app against future threats.

While the SelfCare app remains non-operational, Wijewardana assured that no consumer information was leaked during the incident.

The breach led to some consumers receiving unauthorised and potentially threatening messages via the NWSDB SMS portal on June 1. In response, the NWSDB IT Division launched a full-scale investigation to identify and eliminate the source of the attack.

The NWSDB has urged all customers to ignore and avoid acting on any SMS messages claiming to be from the Board until further notice.

Further updates will be issued as restoration efforts progress, officials said.