{"id":186379,"date":"2026-02-11T09:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/cybersecurity-expert-explains-impact-of-ransomware-attack-halting-online-payments-for-btu-customers\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:40:09","slug":"cybersecurity-expert-explains-impact-of-ransomware-attack-halting-online-payments-for-btu-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/cybersecurity-expert-explains-impact-of-ransomware-attack-halting-online-payments-for-btu-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybersecurity expert explains impact of ransomware attack halting online payments for BTU customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity expert explains impact of ransomware attack halting online payments for BTU customers<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.kbtx.com\/2026\/02\/11\/cybersecurity-expert-explains-impact-ransomware-attack-halting-online-payments-btu-customers\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-02-11 09:25:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.kbtx.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Bryan Texas Utilities (BTU) customers continue to experience disruptions from a ransomware attack tied to third-party payment processor BridgePay. It\u2019s six days into the incident, and thousands of customers remain unable to pay their bills online using credit or debit cards.The outage began on February 6 when BTU\u2019s payment processor became unavailable following a ransomware attack linked to BridgePay, the utility\u2019s third-party vendor. According to BTU\u2019s public information officer, Meagan Brown, the utility service serves about 70,000 customers across the Brazos Valley.\u201cWe do take a lot of personal information when you have your account with BTU, but rest assured, none of that information has been compromised or released,\u201d Brown said.Brown assures customers\u2019 information is safe.According to BTU, no customer information has been compromised during the ongoing ransomware attack.(kbtx)\u201cInstead of one, two, three, four, five, and all the numbers of your credit card, they\u2019re going to see X\u2019s, or they\u2019re going to see some kind of tokenized little dots where they can\u2019t actually use the information,\u201d Brown said.What Is Ransomware?Ransomware is malicious software that infiltrates systems through emails, documents and websites. Once inside, the software encrypts a victim\u2019s data, rendering files into code and making systems unusable without a decryption key.According to local cryptocurrency expert Mary Kate Howard, after bad actors encrypt the data, they\u2019ll usually demand payment, typically in cryptocurrency or Bitcoin, for the decryption key to unlock and restore the files.Cybersecurity experts say that ransomware attacks are becoming more common across the United States.(kbtx)\u201cCustomers that have a lot of success using their ransomware have a higher grade and might get a discount because, you know, hey, that return on investment for ransomware,\u201d Howard said.She said once bad actors think they hit the payload, they\u2019ll start encrypting data to try to steal it.\u201cThe data as it is downloaded, as it is stored, it is, for all intents and purposes, jumbled,\u201d Howard said. \u201cAnd there is a key that says, if it\u2019s how you read it, this is how you cipher it, this is how you can tell what the data actually said. And unless you have that key, that data is useless.\u201dBTU payment alternatives availableWhile online credit and debit card payments remain down, BTU has established in-person payment kiosks throughout Bryan. The company said customers can continue to pay by card at all Bryan H-E-B locations, the City of Bryan Development Center drive-thru, and the BTU drive-thru at 2611 N. Earl Rudder Freeway.Ransomware attack disrupts online billing for 70,000 BTU customers. Learn what happened, where to pay and when service might be restored.Working Toward a SolutionBTU is actively working on backup options to restore business functions and resume accepting credit and debit card payments, both online and in person. The utility company said it\u2019s exploring solutions for both the immediate crisis and long-term prevention.\u201cThere\u2019s already discussions, even while this is ongoing, solutions to fix it now, but then in the future, do we have a backup processor that we can easily switch to? Do we have some other safeguards in place with our third-party contractors to make sure that this doesn\u2019t happen in the future,\u201d Brown said.Brown indicated the restoration process could take a week or two, though she cautioned that no guarantees can be made at this time. \u201cA week or two is probably what you\u2019re going to be looking at. Like I said, can\u2019t make any guarantees right now. But restoration sooner rather than later,\u201d Brown said.BTU reports that it is working on short- and long-term solutions following its recent ransomware attack on its third-party payment processor BridgePay.(kbtx)BTU customer protections in placeUntil the issue is fully resolved, BTU has implemented protections for its customers:No late feesNo penaltiesNo service disconnections for non-paymentAdditionally, once the issue is resolved, BTU said it is prepared to work with customers who may have difficulty paying bills that accumulated during this ransomware incident. The company has also confirmed that no personal customer information has been leaked or stolen in the attack.Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity expert explains impact of ransomware attack halting online payments for BTU customers https:\/\/www.kbtx.com\/2026\/02\/11\/cybersecurity-expert-explains-impact-ransomware-attack-halting-online-payments-btu-customers\/ Publish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":186380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/gray-kbtx-prod.gtv-cdn.com\/resizer\/v2\/6YAYLEKUTZEEZK3W4UXBA3WL4M.png?auth=4d08ca06ea5729ffa5b2dfa59bad1d94a3a242d19b5c09becc8f4464f537af9a&width=1200&height=600&smart=true","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-186379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186381,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186379\/revisions\/186381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}