Latest news with #AtlanticCanada
CBC
7 hours ago
- Business
- CBC
P.E.I.'s energy-saving rebate changes will let infrastructure catch up by slowing demand, some say
A company in P.E.I.'s solar panel industry says the province is putting jobs at risk by cutting a homeowner rebate in half. But some, like Trevor Leeco of Centennial Nissan (shown) say it's good to put the brakes on encouraging the sale of heat pumps and electric cars, at least until the Island charging network and power grid catch up with demand. CBC's Sheehan Desjardins reports.
CBC
8 hours ago
- General
- CBC
79-year-old retired priest charged in P.E.I. with sex-related offences from the late 1980s
Rev. Brendon Gallant served more than 15 Roman Catholic parishes on P.E.I. before he retired. Now he's facing charges that go back to the late 1980s, allegedly involving sexual misconduct against a minor. The CBC's Nicola MacLeod explains.
CTV News
11 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
Some customers say data appeared on dark web after Nova Scotia Power breach
Some Nova Scotians say they've received disturbing notifications from credit monitoring services alerting them that their personal data is now circulating on the dark web – and they believe it's linked to the recent cybersecurity breach at Nova Scotia Power. The dark web is a hidden part of the internet that requires special software to access. While not all activity there is illegal, it is commonly used by criminals to buy and sell stolen personal information, including names, addresses, banking details and social insurance numbers (SIN). Nov Scotia Power confirmed earlier this month it experienced a cyberattack involving a third-party vendor. The utility, owned by Emera Inc., said hackers may have accessed sensitive customer information, and about 140,000 SINs may have been taken, according to the company's CEO. Cybersecurity expert Claudio Popa said the incident is troubling on multiple levels, particularly because it follows another major data breach in Nova Scotia less than a year ago. In May 2023, the MOVEit file transfer software breach compromised data belonging to more than 100,000 people across the province. 'I immediately wondered what the overlap would be and whether an opportunistic cybercriminal would be able to aggregate the data from the two breaches to build more details profiles,' said Popa. 'People must be quite sensitized to having their identities stolen and abused as a result of events beyond their control.' Popa said the breach at Nova Scotia Power exposes serious lapses in data handling, starting with why the utility collected SINs in the first place and why that information was not encrypted. 'In Canada, the SIN is central to people's identities. Utilities generally don't have a reason to collect them, so they should not,' he said. 'It's clear they were not securely stored. Otherwise, they would have been encrypted. We still don't know why were being collected in the first place.' Popa said Nova Scotia Power failed to seize a critical opportunity to rebuild trust with customers – namely by being transparent about the scope of the breach and the ransom demand it reportedly received from the attackers. 'The first should have been telling customers immediately when they were asked to pay a ransom,' Popa said. 'When organizations are upfront, people instinctively offer goodwill but when communication is delayed or vague, it leads to erosion of trust.' The utility has offered customers two years of optional credit monitoring through TransUnion, but Popa said that's insufficient given the nature of the data that was potentially exposed. 'All customers should be getting 10 years of credit monitoring, automatically,' he said. 'This is immutable identity data. You can't change your SIN. The risk doesn't expire in two years.' Popa recommends Nova Scotia Power take three immediate steps: explain the risks tied to the specific data that was stolen advise customers to report any suspicious activity to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre provide access to independent resources such as those from the federal privacy commissioner. He also noted people who receive dark web alerts from Equifax or TransUnion may not always see specifics. The alerts typically signal that some form of personal information – not necessarily SINs – is circulating in cybercrime marketplace. 'It would be your email address, home address, or phone number. Criminals buy multiple data sets and piece them together to impersonate you more convincingly,' Popa said. As the investigation continues, Popa emphasized that cybersecurity breaches are no longer rare events and companies should be better prepared. 'There's no substitute for conducting breach response simulations,' he said. 'You don't want your team thinking about how to respond for the first time while the breach is happening. These are learning opportunities, and companies need to treat them that way.' NS Power The Nova Scotia Power building is pictured in downtown Halifax. (Jonathan MacInnis/CTV Atlantic) For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
CTV News
12 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
N.B. government reaches tentative agreement with school bus drivers, custodians
The New Brunswick government has reached a tentative collective agreement with hundreds of school bus drivers, maintenance workers and custodians. The government says it recently reached a deal with CUPE Local 1253, which represents roughly 3,300 workers in school districts. 'Both negotiating teams have worked diligently to reach this point, and I appreciate their commitment,' said Finance and Treasury Board Minister René Legacy in a news release. 'As a government, we value the essential work they perform every day. We are pleased to have reached this tentative agreement, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with the union.' The details of the agreement will not be disclosed until the deal is ratified. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
CBC
13 hours ago
- General
- CBC
NDP chastises N.S. government over environmental racism recommendations
Social Sharing The leader of Nova Scotia's Official Opposition says the government's refusal to release the recommendations from a panel on environmental racism is the latest example of the Progressive Conservatives ducking transparency. On Thursday, Justice Minister Becky Druhan refused to say why the government is withholding the recommendations or even if she's read them. A government spokesperson said on Friday that the panel shared its recommendations at the end of June 2024 and that a public report was not part of its mandate. Druhan did not say that Thursday. During a news conference at Province House on Friday, Chender told reporters that there is no way to know what actions the Tories are taking and what actions are being ignored if the public does not get to see the recommendations. "How can we measure progress if no one knows what the goal was in the first place?" she said. 'This was an opportunity' Halifax Needham MLA Suzy Hansen, whose amendment to the Progressive Conservatives' signature environmental legislation in 2022 led to the creation of the panel, told reporters that she is frustrated and disappointed by Druhan's comments. Hansen said people from communities with a history of environmental racism put their faith in the process and participated in the hope that it would lead to improvements. Those people deserve to see what's in the report, she said. "This was an opportunity for the government to show that they in good faith are going to do the right thing. And they didn't do any of that by hiding the information," she said. As she was pressed by reporters on Thursday about whether she'd read the recommendations, Druhan noted that the report was ordered before she became justice minister. Hansen said that shouldn't matter, and that it's Druhan's job as minister to know what's in the report. Chender said the Tory position on the panel recommendations follows a continued delay on a report looking at transportation in the province — despite portions of it making its way into the Tories election platform — and a lack of details around a 10-year, $170-million infrastructure deal the province signed with the federal government in February. Public Works Minister Fred Tilley told reporters on Thursday that it's up to Ottawa to release the text of the agreement, which he expects will happen soon. He also said the transportation study would come soon, but could not be more specific. Chender linked the delays in releasing information or holding it back altogether to recent attempts by Premier Tim Houston to pass legislation that would have curbed the powers of the province's auditor general and privacy commissioner. Houston pulled back on that in the face of strong public outcry. Regardless, Chender said there is only one conclusion that can be drawn based on mounting examples. "I think that this government believes that they are above accountability." she said.
