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A Nova Scotia injury law firm is launching a class action lawsuit against Nova Scotia Power in light of this past spring’s cyberattack.
In May, the private utility announced nearly 300,000 ratepayers had their private information stolen. The compromised data included names, birth dates, email addresses, home addresses, customer account information, driver’s licence numbers and, in some cases, bank account numbers and social insurance numbers.
Since the breach, Nova Scotia Power says it’s been having difficulties with its remote meter readings and acknowledged it’s led to inaccurate bills being sent out.
MacGillivray Law’s CEO says a statement of claim is being filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on Friday with the aim of holding the company to account.
“We’ve been hearing concern about people’s social insurance numbers being compromised, concerns around that (but) more direct concerns and more passionate concerns about the billing issues,” said Jamie MacGillivray.
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“We’re hearing about a lot of errors in billing. And usually it’s the ones we’re hearing about, they’re having to pay more, not less. And they’re checking the meters and it doesn’t jive.”
He says people who have reached out to the law firm are already struggling with high costs and being overbilled by the utility is an added hardship. He says the company also owes it to the public to be transparent about what went wrong.
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Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/11563936/nova-scotia-power-class-action/
Nova Scotia Power cybersecurity rating report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/nova-scotia-power
"id": "NOV1765167105",
"linkid": "nova-scotia-power",
"type": "Breach",
"date": "5/2025",
"severity": "85",
"impact": "4",
"explanation": "Attack with significant impact with customers data leaks"{'affected_entities': [{'customers_affected': 'Nearly 300,000 '
'ratepayers',
'industry': 'Energy/Utilities',
'location': 'Nova Scotia, Canada',
'name': 'Nova Scotia Power',
'size': None,
'type': 'Private Utility'}],
'customer_advisories': 'Public disclosure of breach and billing '
'issues',
'data_breach': {'data_encryption': None,
'data_exfiltration': 'Yes',
'file_types_exposed': None,
'number_of_records_exposed': 'Nearly 300,000',
'personally_identifiable_information': 'Yes',
'sensitivity_of_data': 'High (PII and financial '
'information)',
'type_of_data_compromised': ['Names',
'Birth dates',
'Email addresses',
'Home addresses',
'Customer account '
'information',
'Driver’s licence '
'numbers',
'Bank account '
'numbers',
'Social insurance '
'numbers']},
'date_publicly_disclosed': '2024-05',
'description': 'A cyberattack on Nova Scotia Power led to the '
'theft of private information of nearly 300,000 '
'ratepayers. The breach included sensitive data '
'such as names, birth dates, email addresses, '
'home addresses, customer account information, '
'driver’s licence numbers, and in some cases, '
'bank account numbers and social insurance '
'numbers. The incident has also caused '
'difficulties with remote meter readings, '
'resulting in inaccurate billing.',
'impact': {'brand_reputation_impact': 'Significant reputational '
'damage due to lack of '
'transparency and billing '
'issues',
'conversion_rate_impact': None,
'customer_complaints': 'High volume of billing errors '
'and overbilling complaints',
'data_compromised': 'Private information of nearly '
'300,000 ratepayers',
'downtime': None,
'financial_loss': None,
'identity_theft_risk': 'High (social insurance '
'numbers and driver’s licence '
'numbers compromised)',
'legal_liabilities': 'Class action lawsuit filed',
'operational_impact': 'Inaccurate billing, '
'difficulties with remote meter '
'readings',
'payment_information_risk': 'High (bank account '
'numbers compromised in '
'some cases)',
'revenue_loss': None,
'systems_affected': 'Remote meter reading systems, '
'billing systems'},
'initial_access_broker': {'backdoors_established': None,
'data_sold_on_dark_web': None,
'entry_point': None,
'high_value_targets': None,
'reconnaissance_period': None},
'post_incident_analysis': {'corrective_actions': None,
'root_causes': None},
'ransomware': {'data_encryption': None,
'data_exfiltration': None,
'ransom_demanded': None,
'ransom_paid': None,
'ransomware_strain': None},
'references': [{'date_accessed': None,
'source': 'Global News',
'url': None}],
'regulatory_compliance': {'fines_imposed': None,
'legal_actions': 'Class action lawsuit '
'filed in Nova Scotia '
'Supreme Court',
'regulations_violated': None,
'regulatory_notifications': None},
'response': {'adaptive_behavioral_waf': None,
'communication_strategy': 'Public disclosure of '
'breach, but criticized '
'for lack of transparency',
'containment_measures': None,
'enhanced_monitoring': None,
'incident_response_plan_activated': None,
'law_enforcement_notified': None,
'network_segmentation': None,
'on_demand_scrubbing_services': None,
'recovery_measures': None,
'remediation_measures': None,
'third_party_assistance': None},
'title': 'Nova Scotia Power Cyberattack and Data Breach',
'type': 'Data Breach'}