Canadian electric utility Nova Scotia Power has released details about the types of personal and financial information that were stolen during a recent cybersecurity breach.
The breach was first disclosed in late April by Nova Scotia Power and its parent company, Emera. On May 1, the company confirmed that some customer data had been stolen.
Nova Scotia Power emphasized that the incident did not disrupt electricity generation, transmission, or distribution services.
In an update shared on May 14, the company revealed that the unauthorized access occurred around March 19, affecting servers that stored customer information.
The stolen data includes one or more of the following: name, date of birth, phone number, email address, mailing and service addresses, power consumption details, service requests, and information related to payment, billing, and credit history.
Driver’s license numbers and Social Insurance Numbers were also exposed. In some cases, bank account numbers used for pre-authorized payments were accessed if customers had previously provided that information.
Nova Scotia Power stated that there is no current evidence the compromised information has been misused. However, the company is offering two years of free credit monitoring to affected individuals as a precautionary measure. This approach is common among companies following significant data breaches.
The number of impacted individuals has not been confirmed. Nova Scotia Power serves approximately 550,000 customers.
It remains uncertain whether the incident involved ransomware. As of now, no ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the breach.
If ransomware was involved, it is possible that the utility has not been listed on any leak site because a ransom was paid or because negotiations with the attackers are still ongoing.
Nova Scotia Power declined to provide further information beyond what has already been published on its website.
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