Toronto Crime Stoppers temporarily stops accepting tips after data breach

TORONTO – Toronto Crime Stoppers has temporarily stopped accepting tips after it says more than 175,000 of them were stolen by hackers earlier this year, alongside nearly 15,000 names.

The organization, which allows people to submit confidential crime tips to law enforcement, says in a statement that the tip software it has used since 2018 was hit by a data breach in March.

It says the company that owns the software reported that 176,859 Toronto tips submitted between January 2022 and last November were included in the stolen data, as well as 14,973 names.

Toronto Crime Stoppers says the company, Navigate360, has not disclosed whether the names are of people who submitted tips, are named in them, or both, nor has it provided the text of the stolen tips, despite repeated requests.

The Toronto program pause comes after CBC reported that 1.5 million tips submitted to Canadian Crime Stoppers programs over the last 25 years were exposed in a massive data breach.

Toronto Crime Stoppers says it didn’t stop accepting tips sooner because Navigate360 initially said in April that Toronto data had not been taken, and when the company later said Toronto data was affected, it did not say what information was exposed. 

It says it is working on a “safer way” to take tips and will share details in the coming days.

Toronto police say they are aware of new information regarding the breach, which they say “raises serious concerns regarding the protection of confidential information provided through the Crime Stoppers program.”

The force says it has suspended its use of the program while it reviews the new information and assesses the additional measures being put in place at the organization.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.