Canada’s Desjardins Group Reaches Settlement Over Massive Data Breach in 2019

Canada’s Desjardins Group said on Thursday it had reached a settlement with plaintiffs in a lawsuit tied to a massive data breach in 2019, which impacted the personal information of more than 4 million of the financial services firm’s users.

Under the settlement, a maximum sum of nearly C$201 million ($157.31 million) would be set aside to pay eligible users who file a claim, the company said.

The agreement would have to be submitted to the Superior Court of Quebec for approval, Desjardins said, adding that every individual affected by the breach would be eligible to file a claim.

In June 2019, Desjardins had announced that unauthorized use of internal data by an employee led to a leak of personal information including social insurance numbers, addresses and details of banking habits for many of its customers.

($1 = 1.2777 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; editing by Ramakrishnan M.)