Desjardins announces personal info of 2.9M members has been improperly shared

Jun 21 2019, 1:35 am

Laval police have contacted the Desjardins Group with information confirming that the personal information of more than 2.9 million members have been shared with individuals outside of the organization.

According to a press release, this includes 2.7 million individual members and 173,000 business members.

“The situation is the outcome of unauthorized and illegal use of our internal data by an employee who has since been fired,” reads the release.

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Additional security measures have been put in place on all accounts, as a result. Desjardins Group will be sending a letter to all members affected by the incident.

As per the news release, personal members have had the following information affected:

  • first and last name
  • date of birth
  • social insurance number
  • address
  • phone number
  • email address
  • details concerning banking habits and Desjardins products

Passwords, security questions, and personal identification numbers were not compromised, according to the report.

Desjardins Groups continued to say the “incident was not a cyberattack. Desjardins computer systems were in no way breached during this incident, which was the result of illegal acts committed by the above-mentioned former employee.”

The affected data among Desjardins business members included names, addresses, telephone numbers, and the names of owners and AccèsD Affaires account users.

Desjardins is assuring its members and clients that it has hired experts and is working closely with police to “protect its members’ and clients’ person information, accounts, and assets.”

As a precaution, Desjardins is offering affected members a credit monitoring plan and identity theft insurance for a full year, paid for by the financial institution. These members will be contacted directly, and an activation code will be included in the letter they receive.

“I’d like to reassure our members and clients: their accounts and assets with Desjardins are protected in the event of fraud,” says Guy Cormier, President and CEO of Desjardins Group. “If they suffer a financial loss as a result of this situation, they will get their money back. We regret this situation and are making every effort to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”

Members and clients who have questions or concerns are urged to contact Desjardins at 1-800-CAISSES (1-800-224-7737), from 9 am to 9 pm, seven days a week.

Desjardins is asking anyone who has not received a letter informing them they’ve been affected to visit www.desjardins.com/personal-information for more information.

Ty JadahTy Jadah

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