Desjardins spends $53 million related to data breach

(Reuters) — Canadian lender Desjardins Group said on Monday it spent CA$70 million ($53 million) in the second quarter related to a data privacy breach earlier this year that exposed personal information of 2.9 million members.

The company offered the affected accounts a credit monitoring plan and identity theft insurance for five years without any additional costs to those customers, Desjardins said.

Unauthorized use of internal data by an employee led to breach of personal information including social insurance number, address and details of banking habits, the company said in June.

Last year, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said that cyberattackers may have stolen data of nearly 90,000 customers in what appeared to be the first significant assault on financial institutions in the country.