Halton cops halt use of Crime Stoppers after data breach

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Police in Halton have suspended their use of Crime Stoppers a day after it was revealed that anonymous submissions to the Toronto tip line were hacked.

Halton Regional Police Service said Thursday that while the tip-management platform is not connected to its internal systems, they have stopped using the service while awaiting more information about the scope and impact of the widespread data breach.

“Members of the public who wish to provide information about a crime or public safety concern are encouraged to contact us directly through our existing reporting channels,” police said in a statement.

“While this does not provide the anonymity associated with the Crime Stoppers program, it will ensure information is received directly by investigators.”

Safety and security primary concern

Police said they recognize the seriousness of the incident, adding that the “safety and security of Halton residents who have interacted with Crime Stoppers is our primary concern.”

They are also investigating and assessing the potential impact of the incident on police operations.

On Wednesday, Sean Sportun, chair of Toronto Crime Stoppers, said the tip line was being paused “effective immediately” following a CBC investigation that revealed hundreds of thousands of tips submitted to Crime Stoppers chapters across Canada over the past 25 years had been exposed in a data breach.

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Sportun said the decision was not made lightly.

“Until we have a safer way to protect you, please do not send us tips by phone, online, or through the app,” Sportun said in a lengthy statement.

He said the “Tip Submit” feature had been removed from the Toronto Crime Stoppers website, 222tips.com. He also advised platform vendor Navigate360/P3 to immediately suspend accepting information for Toronto Crime Stoppers and directed the National Anonymous Call Centre to stop accepting or processing any new information intended for the Toronto tip line.

Reports of data breach surfaced in March

According to Sportun, his organization learned of reports of a data breach in mid-March, but was told by Navigate360 that it had not confirmed an incident had occurred and that P3 was fully operational. He said Toronto Police were notified, all program passwords were reset, and multi-factor authentication was activated to enhance security.

On March 25, Sportun said Navigate360 confirmed someone had accessed P3 using stolen login credentials from a customer account, but was told the system was “safe and fully operational.”

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About two weeks later, Navigate360 said data from some Canadian programs had been taken, but none from Toronto was affected.

Near the end of May, Navigate360 advised users that a U.S.-based Crime Stoppers program had been targeted in the attack. Approximately 91 gigabytes of data had initially been taken but was recovered. After asking whether Toronto’s data was part of the breach and whether P3 was safe to continue using, the platform vendor confirmed on June 9 that Sportun’s organization had also been affected. The breach involved tips submitted between January 2022 and November 2025.

Toronto tips were stolen

While looking for a different and safer way to take anonymous tips from the public, Sportun said Navigate360 revealed on July 6 that 176,859 Toronto tips had been stolen, and 12,392 of them “potentially” contained personal information.

Between September and October, Sportun said Navigate360 advised that it had a list of approximately 14,973 names associated with the data breach. But the platform vendor did not say who the names belonged to or whether they were associated with tipsters, suspects or others.

“We are continuing to follow up for the text of the stolen tips so we can understand the true impact and the scope of the exposure,” Sportun said.

“We know waiting is hard, especially for anyone worried about their safety. We will keep pressing for answers, and we will share what we learn as soon as we can.”

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