Nova Scotia government detailed scope of MOVEit data theft affecting about 100,000

The Government of Nova Scotia confirmed in June 2023 that personal information it held had been stolen through the global compromise of MOVEit, the managed file transfer product used by provincial departments, Nova Scotia Health and the IWK Health Centre.

In an update issued on June 9 the province identified further groups of victims. About 55,000 records covering current and former certified and permitted teachers were taken, holding names, addresses, dates of birth, years of service and educational background. Roughly 26,000 students aged 16 and over had dates of birth, gender, student identification numbers, school and address details exposed. The province also listed around 5,000 short-term accommodation owners, 3,800 applicants for jobs with Nova Scotia Health, about 1,400 pension plan recipients, more than 150 health providers, several hundred people held in adult correctional facilities and roughly 1,000 people issued parking tickets in Halifax.

The largest group remained current and former employees of Nova Scotia Health, the IWK and the provincial public service. For many of them the stolen payroll records included social insurance numbers, addresses and banking information. The province said the teacher and student records did not contain either.

Nova Scotia took the system offline, applied the vendor's security update, brought in outside cybersecurity specialists and notified police and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. Notification letters and offers of credit monitoring began going out in June. The Clop group, which claimed the MOVEit campaign, said it had deleted public sector data. The province said it did not regard the criminals as trustworthy and would not communicate with them.