Halifax Water has temporarily shut down its Customer Connect online portal following what it describes as unauthorized access to information associated with the system.
The utility said the shutdown took effect on March 6 as part of its response to the incident. An investigation is now underway to determine what information may have been accessed.
Halifax Water said it has activated its incident response protocols and notified appropriate authorities. While the review continues, officials noted there is currently no indication that financial or banking information is at risk.
The organization said it is working to strengthen system protections before restoring the Customer Connect portal and will provide updates as more details become available.
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“Protecting customer information and maintaining reliable service are top priorities,” the utility said, apologizing for any concern or inconvenience caused.
Despite the outage, Halifax Water emphasized that core operations remain unaffected and services continue as normal.
Customers are being urged to remain vigilant against potential scams linked to the incident. The utility said it is not contacting customers about the situation and will only make calls during regular business hours. Anyone receiving suspicious calls, emails or text messages claiming to be from Halifax Water is advised to ignore them and verify information using official contact channels.
News of the Halifax Water breach comes roughly a year after a separate cybersecurity incident involving Nova Scotia Power in March 2025. A report submitted to the Nova Scotia Energy Board, which investigated that breach, indicated the attack may have exposed sensitive data belonging to hundreds of thousands of customers, including names, birth dates, email addresses, home addresses, account details, driver’s licence numbers and, in some cases, bank account and social insurance numbers.
Halifax Water said it expects to provide further updates as the investigation progresses and additional safeguards are implemented.
