The New York Scots have lost confidence in the largest electricity company in the province, provincial politicians said Wednesday during a meeting of the Acharged Committee that raised difficult questions about the recent ransomware attack against the power of Nueva Scotia.
Cybersecurity violation gave thieves access to personal and financial data that belong to 280,000 taxpayers, approximately half of the customers of the public services company.
The members of the Public Accounts Committee to the interrogation of the CEO of Nova Scotia Power, Peter Gregg, and two other members of the high level personnel, asking how the violation occurred and what the company will do to protect taxpayers from financial damage.
“We understand that it is very worrying, and we are working hard to address customer problems and continue strengthening our systems as we work to restore and rebuild,” Gregg told El Committee.
However, when the meeting ended, executives had very little new information to share.
John White, MLA of Gace Bay-Dominion, questioned the high-level personnel of the public services company in a provincial legislative committee on Wednesday, after a massive cybersecurity violation.
“We have, for what we understand, 140,000 Scottish Nova who have had their stolen social security numbers, and those people are furious,” said NDP leader Claudia Chender to the committee.
Gregg said the company, a subsidiary of Emera Inc., based in Halifax, identified an unusual activity on its servers on April 25, but then determined that the cybercrings had accessed the system as of March 19.
Since then, the utility has sent letters to customers who report them that stolen data can include their names, birth dates, email addresses, housing addresses, customer account information, driver’s account numbers and, in some cases, bank account numbers and social security numbers.
The cyber attack affected almost half of the 525,000 clients of the public services company.
Gregg confirmed that the company had previously collected social security numbers to authenticate customer identities in cases where several clients had the same name, but said the practice has stopped.
The utility now requests only the last three digits of the social security number of each client, which is not stored.
The leader of the NDP of Nueva Scotia, Claudia Chender, asked CEO Peter Gregg and Chris Lanteigne, customer service director, about what customers can expect from the public services company after their data were stolen in a cybersecurity violation.
Even so, Chender pressed public service executives to explain why new Power Scotland continues to store the complete social security numbers that he had previously collected. But they refused to say, citing an ongoing investigation.
“Today I don’t have an answer for you,” Gregg said.
Chender said Gregg’s response was disappointing. “With stronger safety protocols, the Histians of the new Scotland would be protected,” he said.
The PND leader continued to ask how affected taxpayers would be compensated for possible losses. Once again, Gregg did not respond directly, saying that the utility offers customers a two -year subscription for credit monitoring, which could be extended.
The progressive conservative member Brian Wong said that New York Scots deserve something better.
“We have Nova’s scotians not only scared, they are angry,” he told Gregg.
Derek Mombourchette, an interim liberal leader of Nueva Scotia, pressed the CEO Peter Gregg at a meeting of the Legislative Committee on Wednesday on whether customers will see an increase in the rate after a cybersecurity rape.
When multiple members of the committee asked him if new Scotland Power undertook to cover the costs of violation internally instead of delivering the bill to taxpayers, Gregg again avoided a direct response.
He said that the cybersecurity insurance of Nova Scotia Power would probably cover many expenses, but said that the public services company does not know the cost of rape. “Until we advance more in this investigation and determine the total cost, I cannot give it an answer yes or not.”
The interim liberal leader Derek Mombourquette said that the first step of Nova Scotia Power towards the reconstruction of public trust should be promising not to transmit costs to consumers who have long complained about electricity bills and frequent energy cuts.
“There is no confidence with the power of Nueva Scotia at this time,” said Mombourquette after the meeting. “I don’t think what we hear in the committee today has done more to reassure customers.”
At the end of the meeting, Chender presented a motion to request the general auditor of the province to investigate the violation, which was adopted.
Meanwhile, the Federal Privacy Commissioner has already launched an investigation. Philippe Dufresne issued a statement last week saying that the investigation began after receiving complaints about security violation in April.
