Nova Scotia energy provider takes some servers offline following cyber incident

Nova Scotia Power and its parent company Emera said a cyberattack has affected parts of its Canadian network and servers supporting portions of its business.

The company says it provides 95% of the power for Nova Scotia and serves more than 500,000 homes and facilities across the province. On Friday, Nova Scotia Power discovered a cyber incident involving unauthorized access to its systems. 

In an FAQ on the Nova Scotia Power website, the company said the cyberattack impacted the customer care phone line and the online customer portal known as MyAccount. 

Phone numbers were provided to customers in case outages or emergencies need to be reported. The company warned that the attack has caused increased wait times for callers to the customer care center. 

When contacted for comment, Emera and Nova Scotia Power declined to say whether the incident is a ransomware attack but explained in a press release that it was forced to isolate certain servers affected by the attack in order to prevent “further intrusion.”

The statement said that while servers were impacted, there was no disruption to physical operations, including “Nova Scotia Power’s generation, transmission and distribution facilities, the Maritime Link or the Brunswick Pipeline.”

“There has been no impact to Emera’s U.S. or Caribbean utilities,” the company said. “At this time, the incident is not expected to have a material impact on the financial performance of the business.” 

The company’s IT team is working with law enforcement and cyber experts to bring the IT systems back online. 

Nova Scotia Power said it manages $5 billion worth of power generation, transmission and distribution. Its parent company Emera, based in Halifax, serves more than 2.5 million utility customers across Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean. It reported about $849 million in net income for 2024. 

The attack on Nova Scotia Power came as Spain and Portugal experienced a widespread power outage on Monday, leaving millions without electricity.