Cyberattack Disrupts Nova Scotia Power’s IT Systems, No Outages Reported
On April 25, Canadian electric utility Nova Scotia Power and its parent company Emera detected unauthorized access to portions of their business network and servers. The companies responded by isolating and shutting down affected systems, leading to disruptions in IT services, including the utility’s customer care phone line and online portal.
Nova Scotia Power serves approximately 550,000 customers, while Emera’s broader operations spanning electric and natural gas utilities support 2.6 million customers across Canada, the U.S., and the Caribbean. Despite the cyber incident, both companies confirmed that physical operations remained unaffected, with no power outages reported. Critical infrastructure, including generation, transmission, and distribution facilities, continued to function normally, as did Emera’s U.S. and Caribbean utilities.
As of April 28, Nova Scotia Power was still working to restore impacted systems but has not provided further updates. The company is investigating whether customer or confidential business data was compromised. While no ransomware group has claimed responsibility, the nature of the attack suggests a possible ransomware incident.
Energy sector organizations are frequent targets for cyber threats, including profit-driven criminals and state-sponsored actors. Recent incidents, such as the Volt Typhoon intrusion into the U.S. electric grid in 2023, highlight the sector’s vulnerability to prolonged cyber espionage and sabotage.
Source: https://www.securityweek.com/canadian-electric-utility-hit-by-cyberattack/
Emera cybersecurity rating report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/emera
"id": "EME1768392620",
"linkid": "emera",
"type": "Cyber Attack",
"date": "5/2025",
"severity": "100",
"impact": "5",
"explanation": "Attack threatening the organization's existence"{'affected_entities': [{'customers_affected': '550,000',
'industry': 'Energy',
'location': 'Canada',
'name': 'Nova Scotia Power',
'size': '550,000 customers',
'type': 'Electric Utility'},
{'industry': 'Energy',
'location': 'Canada, US, Caribbean',
'name': 'Emera',
'size': '2.6 million customers',
'type': 'Parent Company (Electric and Natural Gas '
'Utilities)'}],
'date_detected': '2024-04-25',
'date_publicly_disclosed': '2024-04-25',
'description': 'Canadian electric utility Nova Scotia Power and its parent '
'company Emera are responding to a disruptive cyberattack. The '
'attack involved unauthorized access to some parts of their '
'Canadian network and servers used for business applications. '
'Impacted servers were shut down and isolated, disrupting IT '
'systems including the utility’s customer care phone line and '
'online portal.',
'impact': {'operational_impact': 'Disruption to IT systems and customer '
'service channels',
'systems_affected': 'Business applications, customer care phone '
'line, online portal'},
'investigation_status': 'Ongoing',
'references': [{'source': 'SecurityWeek'}],
'response': {'communication_strategy': 'Public statements via company '
'channels',
'containment_measures': 'Impacted servers were shut down and '
'isolated',
'remediation_measures': 'Restoring impacted systems'},
'title': 'Cyberattack on Nova Scotia Power and Emera',
'type': 'Cyberattack'}