Operations at Northern California's Patelco Credit Union have been disrupted by a ransomware attack over the weekend, hindering banking service access to nearly 500,000 individuals, according to CBS Bay Area.
Despite the attack prompting the immediate shutdown of Patelco's banking systems, its ATMs, branches, and call centers continued operating regular hours although individual account information was inaccessible to employees, said a Patelco spokesperson. Other services affected by the outage included the credit union's website and mobile app, electronic transactions, and online bill payments, as well as portions of its debit and credit card transactions.
"We have engaged a leading third-party cybersecurity forensic firm to help us to investigate and recover as soon as possible. Please know that our team and third-party partners are working around the clock to get back up and running," noted the spokesperson, who also emphasized the credit union's commitment to ensure transparency regarding the incident.