Nearly 70,000 Canada Life customers affected in cyber incident
Insurance agency Canada Life said that it has recently identified a cyber incident affecting around 70,000 of its customers.
On Monday, Canada Life shared a statement on its website addressing the incident, stating that it involved unauthorized access to “certain applications through an employee account.” According to the company, the incident has since been contained, and operations and services have resumed.
After discovering what happened, the company said it notified authorities and immediately launched an investigation with third-party cybersecurity experts.
In an email to Daily Hive, a company spokesperson stated, “Our current assessment is that it is a small proportion of our customers who may have been impacted.”
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In a phone interview, the spokesperson explained that less than 0.5 per cent (about 70,000) of the company’s 14 million Canadian customers were affected, with the impact primarily limited to one corporate client. Compromised data includes names, addresses, and, in some cases, date of birth and the individual’s earnings. The company stated that these customers will be notified and will be offered free credit monitoring protection.
In addition to Canada, the company offers insurance, wealth management, and healthcare benefits and services in the U.K., the Isle of Man, Germany, and Ireland through Irish Life. None of these international operations was affected.
Daily Dark Web, an independent media platform that covers cybersecurity incidents and data breaches, shared a post about the incident, along with a screenshot circulating online. The post noted that the threat actor allegedly responsible for the incident “has a strong historical credibility,” and claims that they have database information, which includes Salesforce records with personal information.
The Canada Life spokesperson told Daily Hive that they did not have information about the alleged $500,000 ransom.
“Our primary focus is the protection and care of our customers, advisors, and employees,” reads the statement.