Emera and Nova Scotia Power say they are responding to a cybersecurity incident.

They said in a news release Monday that someone gained unauthorized access to parts of their Canadian network and servers supporting their business applications. The breach was discovered April 25, according to the release.

The news release did not say what information was accessed, or what, if anything, was done with it.

Based on expert advice, including law enforcement at all levels, we made the decision to … we have not paid,” he said.

Cybersecurity experts are now helping Nova Scotia Power, Gregg said.

While cybersecurity protections are in place at the utility, Gregg said there is now an active investigation to see what can be learned from the breach and tighten defences in the future.

The operations side of the business was not affected, he said.

Nova Scotia Power and parent company Emera announced in late April that they were dealing with a cybersecurity incident discovered on April 25. The company’s investigation later revealed the data was accessed more than a month earlier, on or around March 19, and was later stolen.

Nova Scotia Power has confirmed it is the victim of a ransomware attack and that the hackers who stole data have published it on the dark web.

Peter Gregg, the utility’s president and CEO, said Friday it is believed 280,000 customers have had their information stolen — more than half of the customers in the province.

Gregg said the attack comes from a “very sophisticated threat actor.” He said there is a ransom request but none has been paid.