Canada's credit union giant Desjardins reveals massive data breach

OTTAWA: Canada´s Desjardins credit union Thursday announced that the personal banking information of 2.9 million customers had been stolen by an employee and distributed to outside parties.

The nation´s largest credit union and fifth-largest in the world, with Can$304 billion (US$230 billion) in assets under its management, had noted unauthorized access to its members´ information last December, but it was only confirmed by police last Friday.

An employee with "ill-intention" at Desjardins Group collected information about nearly three million people and businesses and shared it with others outside the Quebec-based financial institution, officials revealed Thursday.

The data breach affects around 2.9 million people and 173,000 businesses, more than 40 per cent of the co-operative's clients and members. Desjardins is the largest federation of credit unions in North America.

In a statement it said police confirmed to the credit union that the personal information of 2.9 million members "had been shared with individuals outside the organization. This includes 2.7 million individual members and 173,000 business members."

This included names, date of birth, contact information and banking habits. Passwords and other security information were not compromised.

The nation´s largest credit union and fifth-largest in the world, 

The employee responsible for the breach has since been fired, and Desjardins has put in place additional security measures, Desjardins Group senior vice president Denis Berthiaume told a press conference.