Desjardins Data Breach Affecting 2.9 Million Members Caused By Employee Who's Since Been Fired

Freshly Exhumed shares a report from The Georgia Straight: The Quebec-based Desjardins Group has admitted to being victimized by one of the largest data breaches in Canadian history. Laval police informed the financial-services giant that personal information of more than 2.9 million members has been shared with people outside of the organization. This includes 2.7 million people and 173,000 businesses. 'This situation is the outcome of unauthorized and illegal use of our internal data by an employee who has since been fired,' Desjardins said in a statement. 'In light of these events, and given the circumstances, additional security measures were put in place on all accounts.' Desjardins, which is the largest federation of credit unions in North America, will be informing people by letters if they've been affected. The leaked data included first and last names, birthdates, social insurance numbers, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and details about banking habits. However, passwords, security questions, and PINs were not disclosed.

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