The City of Mountlake Terrace has received some new information about the February data breach of its utility billing vendor, Automatic Funds Transfer Services (AFTS).
AFTS has notified the city that after further discovery and investigation, none of the Mountlake Terrace customer information was breached and the company is making progress to get their services back online. AFTS announced that nearly all of the breach occurred in their real estate loan servicing business unit. AFTS noted that, “while not great news for the approximate 7,500 accounts we have in this business unit, it is good news for lockbox, statement and other clients and customers that do not appear to be impacted by the exfiltration efforts of the attackers.”
The community’s patience is very much appreciated during this challenging time as the city has been working to gain more information from AFTS to respond to questions and take manual payments since the AFTS system is not fully functional. In response, the city has added a new temporary online payment option that is now live on the city’s website.
In the meantime, AFTS is printing and mailing the city’s utility bills and the city has three ways you can pay: 1) Mail to the city’s mailing address, PO BOX 72, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043; 2) Submit payment in the payment drop box outside of Interim City Hall at 6100 219th Street SW (see photo); or 3) Utilize the new temporary online payment option the city has secured with another of our vendors, CardConnect.
A link to the CardPoint payment service option is now available at www.cityofmlt.com/167. Customers will need their account information available as CardPoint is merely an online payment portal and does not have your account information to view.
If you already use bill pay with your bank, please confirm the mailing address is PO BOX 72, Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043.
It is important to know that our bills look a little different right now because the city is currently processing them in-house instead of through AFTS (see sample bill). Our billing system arranges the account information differently than the vendor’s system which causes it to look different than usual. We ask you to mail checks to PO BOX 72 because the city is processing your payments instead of AFTS that has a Seattle address you may be accustomed to. These changes are temporary until all services are restored.
For more information, visit the city’s website at www.cityofmlt.com/162, email utilitybilling@mltwa.gov or call (425) 744-6214.
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