Canada Desjardins Data Breach Affects 4.2M

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The number affected by the Canada Desjardins data breach affecting residents of Ontario and Quebec includes 1 million more than originally thought, according to recent reports.

In June, the Quebec based bank reported that the personal information of nearly 3 million users was compromised in an identity theft hack. That alone was enough to spark several Canada Desjardins data breach class action lawsuits.

However, provincial police now report that 4.2 million Canadian residents may have had sensitive personal and financial information about them disclosed to third parties in the Canada Desjardins data breach.

“Fraudsters may be tempted to contact you to extract personal information under the pretext that they are doing so in connection with security measures or updates stemming from the incident discovered on June 20, 2019,” warned a provincial watchdog group to Desjardins’ customers affected by the breach.

According to a police investigation, at least one Desjardins employee perpetrated the data breach. As a part of the Canada Desjardins data breach investigation, 91 people were reportedly interviewed and 17 people of interest were named.

The bank said that it would notify newly identified victims of the data breach starting Nov. 4. Desjardins has offered data breach victims a subsidized subscription to a credit monitoring service.

Canada Desjardins Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit

The initial data breach reported in June 2019 sparked several Canada Desjardins data breach class action lawsuits alleging that the bank failed to properly protect customers’ financial information. The bank reported that an employee disclosed the information of 2.7 individual members and 173,000 business members. The employee has since been fired.

According to the class action lawsuits, Desjardins failed to properly safeguard personal information and violated customers’ privacy rights. The plaintiffs say that the bank was negligent when it came to protecting their and others’ financial information from hackers.

As a result, one expert told CTV News, Canada Desjardins data breach victims face the threat of identity theft and fraud.

“With almost three million individuals and businesses affected, whoever he sold it do or disclosed it to…if that took place…that is a treasure trove to potentially make false refund claims on HST or income tax returns or even insurance,” Denis Meunier, former deputy director of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada told CTV News at the time.

Now, with the number of reported victims of the Canada Desjardins data breach increasing, more may face the risks of identity theft and fraud.

For its part, Desjardins has offered data breach victims access to lawyers and experts to help in the event of fraud. According to CTV News, the bank has also stated that it will reimburse data breach victims for expenses from the Canada Desjardins data breach.

The bank has also reportedly offered “permanent” data protection to all of its customers. Customers who have been notified that they were affected by the Canada Desjardins data breach can request a code to access an Equifax monitoring plan.

Have you been affected by a data breach? Tell us more about it!

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