Nova Scotia Power Suffers Major Data Breach

Uploaded on 2025-05-08 in TECHNOLOGY--Hackers, FREE TO VIEW, BUSINESS-Production-Utilities, BUSINESS-Production-Energy

Canadian electric utility Nova Scotia Power (NSP) and its parent company Emera has said that it has recently been hit a significant data security incident that compromised the sensitive personal information of its customers.

In an immediate response, impacted servers were shut down and isolated to prevent further intrusion, however, the attack caused notable service disruptions, including the shutdown of the utility’s customer service phone line and online portal, vital tools for more than half a million Nova Scotians who rely on the company for power.

“On April 25, we detected unusual activity on our network and immediately initiated our incident response plan. This included taking steps to contain the incident, launching a thorough investigation with the help of external cyber security experts, and working to restore affected systems safely and securely." reads the NSP statement. “While our investigation is ongoing, we have identified that certain customer personal information was accessed and taken by an unauthorised third party”, it said.

NSP has not disclosed any more details of this breach that has forced the company to pause billing and led to the shutdown of its online customer portal, nor has it said what other systems have been hit.

From it’s HQ in Halifax, Canada, NSP it is the primary electricity provider in Nova Scotia province and supplies over half a million customers. It is privately owned by Emera and regulated by the provincial government via the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

NSP has said it immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident. It also took steps to contain the incident, secured the affected systems and notified relevant law enforcement authorities about the same. “While our investigation is ongoing, we have identified that certain customer personal information was accessed and taken by an unauthorised third party,” NSP said.

While NSP is yet to share the nature of the incident or how much data was compromised, the company said that the incident did not disrupt any of its Canadian physical operations. The incident, however, affected NSP’s billing and its online customer portal MyAccount and the company will rectify any potential for duplicate payments.

So far, no known hacker group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack and so far the electricity provider has not shared details on who they think was behind the attack, how much data was compromised, or whether it has received a ransom demand.

The company has assured its customers to share more details about the incident as the investigation progresses.

One of the reasons so little information has been released is the company might not know yet exactly what happened, and digital forensics can take a long time. It's also likely those behind the cyber attack are still active in the systems.

NSPower | TEISS | CBC | Economic Times | Security Week

Image: @nspowerinc

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