Credit union the Desjardins Group is offering free, permanent data protection to all its members following a recent data breach.
The protection will be rolled out for all clients, not just the 2.7 million people and 173,000 businesses that were impacted by the June data breach. In a news release, the Desjardins Group said that all of its clients in Quebec and Ontario, including business customers, will have access to data protection for life and in-house services to help address identity theft. The protection will not be extended to to investment and insurance customers.
Desjardins clients who are victims of identity theft in the future will have free access to lawyers specializing in identity theft and will be compensated for their losses. The credit union said that it won't just be a matter of directing clients to services; they'll be accompanied during every step of the process, from completing a police report to contacting federal government agencies.
The protection plan includes up to $50,000 for clients who experience identity theft, including loss of salary or fees associated with filing legal documents. Desjardins Group had previously announced that it was offering everyone impacted by the data breach— about 40% of its customers — five years of free credit monitoring with Equifax.
The federal and Quebec governments recently announced that they have launched a joint investigation of the data breach and its cause.
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