Parliamentary committee on public safety set to take up Desjardins data breach
Posted July 15, 2019 8:43 am.
OTTAWA — A parliamentary committee will grapple this afternoon with the consequences of a major data breach at Desjardins Group.
The breach, revealed in June, affected roughly 2.7 million people and 173,000 businesses.
Desjardins Group said names, addresses, birthdates, social-insurance numbers and other private information was leaked.
The Quebec-based financial institution said a single employee, who has been fired since the breach was detected in December 2018, was responsible.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has called for the committee to examine whether issuing new social-insurance numbers to Desjardins members could protect them from identity theft and further privacy violations.
In addition to the committee’s study, privacy commissioners in Ottawa and Quebec will be working in tandem to investigate the issue and determine whether Desjardins had adequate data-protection policies in place.
The Canadian Press
