By Ralph Cantave
PHILIPSBURG- Following public statements made regarding the role and involvement of Aurora InfoTech in the response of the cyber attack at NV GEBE, President and Chief Executive Officer, Aluska Harms-Richardson responded to a request for comment and stated that they were not contracted by NV GEBE to assist with data retrieval or negotiation with “threat actors.”
Harms-Richardson added that due to a non-disclosure agreement and legal matters they could not divulge much information. Richardson also mentioned that NV GEBE initiated contact to make use of Aurora’s services. According to Roy Richardson, the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, “generally companies that are compromised or suffering an incident will hire third parties” to do the work of data recovery and negotiation with hackers.
Richardson revealed that Aurora InfoTech is one of the vendors that has not been paid by NV GEBE. Non-payment and delayed payments by NV GEBE to vendors has affected the reputation of the company locally and internationally. Considering the slump in income caused by faulty bills, non issuance of bills or receipts to clients, NV GEBE has been providing electricity from its reserve which it can no longer continue. This was stated in a company release of August 26. The company has placed a great emphasis on the public to settle outstanding amounts by September 1, 2022 to prevent disconnections.
In his statement, Richardson added that he was “surprised to learn from the Prime Minister’s closing remarks during Friday’s Parliamentary meeting that the Council of Ministers did not receive the final report, Cyber Threat Intelligence and Incident Response Report on the Blackbyte Ransomware Attack which Aurora InfoTech submitted to both NV GEBE’s management and its supervisory board members on June 15 2022.” This begs to question if the report was included in the “slew of information” the Prime Minister, Silveria Jacobs stated she received from the board for review by the Council of Ministers (COM). Jacobs stated publicly that additional information was requested from the board, as more questions arrived following the presentation the shareholder (COM) received in a meeting with the board and management of GEBE.
Shockingly, Aurora InfoTech also terminated their services to NV GEBE due to the company’s failure to comply with payment to Aurora and “other material breaches of the agreements between the parties.” Aurora added that it will not reveal the specifics of its agreement with GEBE unless required by law” or “to protect the interest of Aurora InfoTech” from false information disseminated publicly with the purpose of harming Aurora’s reputation.
The continuation of the urgent public meeting on the ongoing events at NV GEBE continues this Friday, September 2.
By Ralph Cantave
The prime minister is lying again, it appears.