Halifax Water has announced that customers will still receive paper bills as investigations continue into a recent privacy breach affecting 16 accounts. The online billing portal has been unavailable since March due to the incident.
According to Halifax Water, an external party accessed personal information from the Customer Connect portal due to a vulnerability in the third-party platform supporting it. The utility clarified that the breach was not an attack on its core systems controlling water and wastewater services.
The compromised data from the 16 affected accounts included customer names, email addresses, service or home addresses, account details, and security questions and answers. However, no financial information was exposed.
Impacted customers were informed by mail in June about the breach and were provided with guidance on necessary steps to take. Halifax Water CEO Kenda MacKenzie expressed regret over the situation and assured customers of ongoing efforts to address the matter appropriately.
The utility disclosed that approximately 55,000 customers use the online portal for account management. Following the identification of the vulnerability in November 2025, a temporary fix was implemented but was later rendered ineffective by a software update in January 2026, leading to a re-exposure of the vulnerability.
In a subsequent development, an email alerting Halifax Water to the security issue was initially disregarded as spam in February. However, further communication from the third party in March prompted action, resulting in the portal being taken offline and additional security measures being implemented.
Halifax Water has since enhanced its cybersecurity protocols, expanded testing and training, and is currently working on restoring the portal securely. The timeline for the portal’s reinstatement remains uncertain, with paper bills being sent to customers in the interim.