Toronto Hydro online accounts hacked

subscribe

Toronto police have launched an investigation after as many as 179,000 Toronto Hydro customer account numbers were illegally accessed in the company's electronic billing system.

Toronto Hydro says it contacted police after detecting atypical activity in its e-billing system. "We saw some unusual activity on our systems, and whenever there is more than the normal use of our system, the system shuts down and notifies IT staff," said David O'Brien, president and CEO of Toronto Hydro.

"What was being accessed was the file that contained the customer account number, their name and address. We're very confident it doesn't go deeper than that, no financial information was obtained," said O'Brien, who noted Hydro was concerned the information might be used to obtain credit card or personal information from customers.

"It's a total outrage when the provincial government has been paying lip service to fighting identity theft and a major public utility has exposed close to 200,000 people to that very sort of thing," said Peter Kormos, NDP consumer protection critic.

Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian was notified of the breach and is investigating as well.

"The last bill(s) to 179,000 customers were accessed online," said Bob Spence, spokesman for the office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. "Any time a privacy investigation is launched, we look at what happened and how it might be prevented."

O'Brien says Toronto Hydro will be sending a letter to each of its 685,000 customers, explaining about the privacy breach. It will not be telling customers if their account information was among those accessed, however.

"We're aware of the situation, and we'll be monitoring developments," said Eric Pelletier, a spokesman for the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure.

Related News

BC Hydro completes major milestone on Site C transmission line work

VANCOUVER - The second and final 500 kilovolt, 75 kilometre transmission line on the Site C project has been completed and energized.

With this milestone, the work to connect the new Site C substation to the BC Hydro grid is complete. Once the Site C project begins generating electricity, the transmission lines will help deliver clean energy to the rest of the province.

The two 75 kilometre transmission lines run along an existing right-of-way between Site C and the Peace Canyon generating station. The project’s first 500 kilovolt, 75 kilometre transmission line – along with the Site C substation – were both…

READ MORE
jeff yurek

Court quashes government cancellation of wind farm near Cornwall

READ MORE

jay grewal

New president at Manitoba Hydro to navigate turmoil at Crown corporation

READ MORE

japanese wind farm

Japanese utilities buy into vast offshore wind farm in UK

READ MORE

joe manchin

Manchin Calls For Stronger U.S. Canada Energy And Mineral Partnership

READ MORE