Nearly 300,000 people were impacted by cyberattack on Nova Scotia Power

Canadian utility Nova Scotia Power is notifying about 280,000 people of a data breach that occurred following a cyberattack earlier this year.

In letters to victims, the company said an investigation revealed that hackers had access to critical systems from March 19 to April 25, allowing them to steal names, addresses, driver's license numbers, Canadian Social Insurance numbers, bank account details and troves of information from the Nova Scotia Power program including power consumption, service requests, customer payment, billing and credit history, and customer correspondencе.

The investigation is ongoing and the information stolen varied from customer to customer. Victims are being given two years of credit monitoring services.

Law enforcement and regulatory agencies have been notified of the cyberattack and breach, according to the company.

Nova Scotia Power says it manages $5 billion worth of power generation, transmission and distribution. Its parent company, Halifax-based Emera, 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.

According to the company, it provides 95% of the power for Nova Scotia and serves more than half a million homes and facilities across the province.

It previously confirmed that hackers stole sensitive information but did not say how many people were affected. 

It took weeks for Nova Scotia Power to rebuild impacted systems and in an FAQ page 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. 

When contacted for comment, Emera and Nova Scotia Power declined to say whether the incident was 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 in April 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 claimed at the time.