Nearly 150,000 customers of two major Canadian banks targeted by hackers in 2018 will receive millions of dollars, after an Ontario court ruled the customers must be reimbursed for their losses, according to Blacklock’s Reporter..Justice Robert Smith, of Ontario Superior Court, approved the out-of-court settlement payments to CIBC and Bank of Montréal customers ..The breach cost the two banks a total $38 million, including $23 million to settle court claims, $8.6 million to reimburse customers for money stolen from their accounts, and more than $5 million in free credit monitoring for clients..“The banks have offered free credit monitoring services for two years,” wrote Smith..“Some class members expressed concern their personal information would be posted online in the future … this risk remains a possibility, but it’s mitigated because the police have made arrests.”.RCMP arrested two Montréal brothers in the case last September 23..Court records showed hackers accessed accounts belonging to 113,151 customers at the Bank of Montréal and 10,101 clients at CIBC and its Simplii subsidiary..Desjardins Group, one of the country’s largest credit unions, is no stranger to being hacked — in 2019 it was the victim of Canada’s largest banking security breach after hackers gained access to 2.7 million of its client’s personal information..“What happened at Desjardins has happened elsewhere and could happen again,” CEO Guy Cormier earlier testified at the Commons public safety committee..“In any private organization or public organization that involves managing personal data, this could happen — banks are not safe either.”.The Desjardins leak was blamed on a disgruntled former employee who was later charged by police..However, during the 2015 Senate banking committee hearings, it was warned financial institutions were targeted daily by cyberattacks..“There have been some rough nights,” said Paul Milkman, then-chief of IT security at TD Bank Financial Group. “There are things that are scary.”.“Organized crime and individuals attempt to attack us, probe us, and figure out weaknesses in our defences many thousands of times a day,” he said..“We have people working with threat intel experts in China, experts in Ukraine, experts in dealing with Putin’s nephews in Russia, and experts dealing with the sort of growing threat of cyberterrorists that we’ve seen around the board.”.Mike D’Amour is the British Columbia Bureau Chief for the Western Standard..mdamour@westernstandardonline.com
