Desjardins blamed for security weakness

Watchdog issues breach findings

A series of technological and administrative gaps caused a high-profile data breach at Desjardins — the largest to date in the Canadian financial services sector, the federal privacy watchdog has found.

Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien said Monday that Desjardins did not demonstrate the level of attention needed to protect the sensitive personal information entrusted to its care.

The incident compromised the data of nearly 9.7 million Canadians.

“Canadians expect banking information to have a high level of protection, given its sensitivity,” Therrien told a news conference. “We recognize that's easier said than done for a financial institution given the amount of personal data it owns and the level of complexity of its systems. However, an organization such as Desjardins has the means to comply with the law.”

For at least 26 months, a rogue employee was siphoning sensitive personal information collected by Desjardins from customers who had purchased or received products through the organization, Therrien found.

For some, the data included first and last names, dates of birth, social insurance numbers, street addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and transaction histories.

“Such data elements can be considered sensitive on their own,” the report said. “When combined, they can also be exploited by malicious individuals to steal the identities of the persons concerned.”

This information was originally stored in two data warehouses to which the employee in question had limited access, the commissioner said.

However, other employees, in the course of their work, would regularly copy that information onto a shared computer drive.

As a result, employees who would not usually have the required clearance or need to access some of the confidential data were able to do so, Therrien found.

Desjardins had recognized some of the security weaknesses that ultimately led to the breach and had developed a plan to remedy them, but did not put it in place in time to prevent what happened, Therrien noted.

The breach occurred over more than a two-year period before Desjardins became aware of it, and then only after the organization had been notified by police, he added.

The probe revealed that Desjardins failed to meet several of its obligations under the federal privacy law governing companies. Desjardins has agreed to a list of recommendations to improve information security and the protection of personal data, Therrien said.