What to know
- Toronto Crime Stoppers suspended its anonymous tip service after learning that 176,859 tips submitted between January 2022 and November 2025 were stolen.
- The breach also involved 14,973 names included in tips, although tipsters are not required to provide identifying information.
- The third-party provider, Navigate360, reportedly informed Toronto Crime Stoppers of the breach in March but did not confirm Toronto’s data was affected until June.
- Toronto Police Service has also suspended its use of Crime Stoppers while it reviews the breach and the provider’s security measures.
- There is no timeline for restoring anonymous tips. Residents can contact police through existing channels, but those options do not offer the same anonymity as Crime Stoppers.
Toronto Crime Stoppers has temporarily suspended its anonymous tips service after data related to hundreds of thousands of tips was stolen in a data breach.
In a statement shared on Wednesday, Toronto Crime Stoppers Chair Sean Sportun said the service was immediately paused and the “Tip Submit” feature was removed from its website.
According to him, Navigate 360, a third-party vendor who owns the P3 software, informed Toronto Crime Stoppers back in March that 176,859 tips sent between January of 2022 and November of 2025 were stolen.
Stolen information included 14,973 names that were part of the tips. While those who submit tips are not required to include their names or any identifying information in anonymous tips, Sportun said people sometimes include names to better explain what they witnessed. They have not clarified whether these names are from those submitting the tips or any other names involved in the anonymous reports.
Although they’ve been informed of the breach since March, Toronto Crime Stoppers said it did not take the service down earlier because Navigate360 had insisted that P3 was still secure. It also hadn’t informed the service that Toronto’s data had been stolen until June, or provided any information on what kind of data had been leaked. Since then, Toronto Crime Stoppers said it has also been looking for an alternative way to take in anonymous tips.
“When [Navigate360] told us in June that Toronto’s data was affected, it didn’t say what was exposed. To date, we have still not seen the text stolen tips. We have been pressing for answers for months and continue to do so,” it added.
Earlier this week, CBC News first reported an investigation that had reviewed the breach. According to Sportun, reports shared by news organizations contained information about the breach that Toronto Crime Stoppers hadn’t had access to.
After reports were published, the service then stopped taking in tips.
Sportun says the anonymous tips feature will not be restored until Toronto Crime Stoppers can find a safer system. A clear timeline for when that will be has not been shared.
“Since 1984, people in Toronto have come to Toronto Crime Stoppers because we promised they could stay anonymous. This week’s reporting shows that for some of them, that promise was broken. We are deeply sorry,” Sportun added in a statement.
Anonymous tips indefinitely suspended in Toronto: police
In light of the security breaches, Toronto Police Service (TPS) says it has temporarily suspended its use of Crime Stoppers as it assesses reported information and additional safeguards implemented by the service provider.
“The information that has become available raises serious concerns regarding the protection of confidential information provided through the Crime Stoppers program. The safety of members of the public, tipsters, and police personnel is paramount,” police said in a statement.
There is also no timeline for TPS to restore Crime Stoppers’ service, as it says it will only be unpaused after a review is complete.
Until then, Torontonians don’t have a way to submit tips anonymously. Instead, those who would like to submit tips are urged to contact TPS directly through existing channels. They will then be directed specifically to investigators who will take the information, but anonymity, as provided with the Crime Stoppers program, will not be possible.
“Toronto Crime Stoppers and Toronto Police have worked closely for many years in support of community safety, and we understand they are taking the necessary steps so they can resume their important work supporting public safety and crime prevention,” TPS said in an email to Now Toronto.
Cybersecurity expert says security breaches becoming more common
The service suspension comes after several websites across the world, including Government of Canada pages, were temporarily taken down as developers worked to implement fixes to vulnerabilities of PHP, a widely-utilized programming language.
Read More
In light of these and other recent cybersecurity incidents, Toronto-based cybersecurity tech analyst Ritesh Kotak, told Now Toronto data breaches are becoming an increasing concern for developers, as new AI-powered technologies take over.
“It’s just gotten really easy for artificial intelligence to be weaponized against individuals and organizations where it can go and scan the internet, look for unpatched sites or systems, write scripts that are available to go and infiltrate networks,” he explained. “This is a very scary time when it comes to our digital sovereignty.”
Given these new concerns, Kotak said he recommends internet users move with caution and assume that any information shared through websites or apps could be breached.
“You got to go on that assumption that your life is an open book. All we can do is do our best to protect ourselves. But no matter how much money, how many tools we throw at protecting our infrastructure, it seems that hackers are always finding a way, and AI isn’t making it [easier],” he added.
