NS Power expands credit monitoring offer after cyberattack

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Power says it is offering five years of free credit monitoring to all past and current customers in response to a recent cyberattack.

The private utility had initially offered two free years of monitoring, following a March cybersecurity breach that gave thieves access to personal data belonging to 280,000 ratepayers — about half its customers.

Nova Scotia Power has said the attackers had asked for a ransom in exchange for them not selling the stolen data.

The utility has said it refused to pay the ransom.

Nova Scotia Power says it is working to determine the full scope of the data theft but has confirmed about 140,000 social insurance numbers were taken along with driver’s licence numbers, names, addresses and emails.

The utility says it no longer asks customers for social insurance numbers to authenticate their identities, and has deleted the numbers from records.