Nova Scotia Power CEO one of 280K customers impacted by data breach

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Thousands of social insurance numbers stolen in NS Power breach

NS Power CEO discusses cyberattack

Two-hundred-and-eighty-thousand Nova Scotia Power customers were impacted by a recent data breach – including the utility’s own CEO and president.

Peter Gregg told CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis he was affected by the cyberattack on the utility during an interview on Thursday.

“We’re really sorry that this happened,” he said. “We know it’s a concern for our customers.”

Last week Nova Scotia Power told customers it was the “victim of a sophisticated ransomware attack” on March 19. The company noted “unusual activity” on its network on April 25 and launched a response plan.

Gregg said they received a ransom request from the “threat actor” in the attack within days, but after consulting with law enforcement, they decided not to pay.

Gregg could not disclose the amount of the ransom.

According to The Canadian Press, up to 140,000 social insurance numbers could have been stolen during the cyberattack. Other stolen information could include names, phone numbers, addresses, birth dates and bank account information.

In response to the attack, the utility has arranged to supply impacted customers with a free two-year subscription to a credit monitoring service through TransUnion.

Gregg is also encouraging customers to change their passwords regularly.

“The unfortunate reality is we continue to gain sophistication to defend ourselves but the bad actors are also getting more sophisticated,” he said. “You can never rest and say we’re done, we’re 100 per cent secure.”

On Wednesday the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada announced it was launching an investigation into the incident to ensure Nova Scotia Power is “effectively addressing the breach and protecting the personal information of its customers.”

-With files from The Canadian Press

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