Leakage of personal information at Desjardins: what SMEs need to know

In June 2019, Desjardins announced that it had been the victim of a personal information leak affecting 2.9 million members, including 173,000 corporate members. This leak was the work of a malicious employee who had been dismissed.

We quickly contacted upper management at Desjardins to learn the facts about the state of protection of your company’s data. We were assured that their business members would benefit from increased protection.

If you are a victim of this leak, you have received – or soon will receive – an official letter from Desjardins indicating what steps you need to take.

New protective measures for Desjardins members
Whether or not you are a victim of the recent data theft, Desjardins has put in place three new measures  to protect personal and financial information; these measures apply to all personal and business members: 

1. Protection: Your accounts and assets at Desjardins are fully protected. You will not suffer a financial loss if unauthorized transactions are made in your Desjardins accounts as a result of this situation.
2. Personalized support: If your identity is stolen, Desjardins will offer you personalized support. Its team of experts and lawyers will be there for you throughout the identity recovery process.
3. Reimbursement: All Desjardins caisse members will benefit from a new solution that will reimburse up to $50,000 for certain expenses related to identity theft and recovery. 

In the case of individual members, these new measures offered by Desjardins are in addition to the Equifax/TransUnion monitoring services that they receive. The Equifax/TransUnion services do not apply to business members, however.

What company-related information was potentially stolen?

• Company name, address, telephone number, email address
• Name of company owner
• Name of AccèsD Affaires services user
• Some information about the transactional habits and products that the company has with Desjardins

What company-related information was not stolen?

• Passwords of AccèsD Affaires users
• Personal Identification Numbers (PINs)
• Security questions asked when logging in to AccèsD Affaires
• Financial statements and real estate assets

If you are a victim of this leak, please follow the steps indicated in the official letter from Desjardins.

We recommend that you remain vigilant with respect to unusual transactions in your account and that you contact Desjardins if you notice any irregularities.