Desjardins data breach: Laval police arrest 3 suspects, fourth one being sought
Montreal-area police announced Wednesday that they have arrested three people in connection with a major data theft and $8.9-million fraud involving the co-operative financial group Desjardins, some five years after the alleged crime.
Police in Laval, Que., said one of the suspects was caught with a list of personal data for 1.6 million Quebecers.
The arrests are tied to a 2019 data theft, described as the largest ever in the Canadian financial services sector, that targeted more than 9.7 million Desjardins clients in Canada and internationally, including almost seven million Quebecers.
Laval police deputy director of criminal organizations Jean-François Rousselle said the suspects were allegedly able to use the stolen personal information to get access to the clients' accounts through the bank's online banking platform, Accès D.
“These individuals used the data stolen from Desjardins in order to facilitate the conduct of their operations and to disperse funds in Canada, the United States, but also throughout the world," Rousselle said.
"The main method of operation was to obtain, via the Accès D service, a temporary password using the users' personal information that they had in their possession, to then proceed with transactions made directly from bank accounts via the web platform."
Police said the three suspects used the stolen data to commit fraud totalling $8.9 million between September 2018 and January 2019.
Laval's deputy police chief Jean François Rousselle announced three arrests in connection with the 2019 Desjardins data breach. (CTV News)
Thirty-six-year-old Ayoub Kourdal, and 33-year-old Imad Jbara were scheduled to appear in court Wednesday, while a court date for the third suspect has not been set. They face charges of fraud over $5,000, trafficking in identity information, possession of identity information, and identity theft.
Police said they are searching for a fourth person in connection with the fraud and data theft.
Rousselle said the investigation was one of the most complex in the force's history and involved the help of the Quebec provincial police and prosecutors.
It led to raids in Montreal, Laval and St-Augustin-de-Desmaures in 2019 that resulted in the seizure of a large amount of data and 70 pieces of computers and equipment containing thousands of documents and files.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec published scathing reports in 2020 that concluded Desjardins failed to show the level of attention required to protect its customers' data.
The OPC report found that Desjardins had been aware of the security weaknesses that led to the breach, but failed to address them in time. 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 the police," it found.
The leak was blamed on an employee of the marketing team who was able to access confidential information, despite not having the clearance level to do so, because other employees would copy the information onto a shared drive.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2024.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6936072.1718986689!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
Job losses and killer robots: The 'Godfather of AI' describes plenty to fear, but there may be room for hope
University of Toronto computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton describes plenty to fear with AI, but with visions of combat drones, mass surveillance and robot overlords ahead, there may be space for hope.
'I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated': Video appears to show man spit on MP
A video circulating online appears to show MP and former cabinet minister Marco Mendicino get spat on while on his way into a government building in Ottawa.
4 people found dead in southwestern Ontario town of Harrow
Ontario Provincial Police are investigating after four people were found dead in the town of Harrow, just south of Windsor. Officers were called to a residence on County Road 13 at approximately 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.
More than 100 stolen vehicles recovered in auto theft probe involving ServiceOntario employee: Toronto police
Toronto police say they have arrested four suspects and recovered more than 100 stolen vehicles as part of a months-long auto theft probe that involved a former ServiceOntario employee.
EXCLUSIVE 'We were in danger': Timmins, Ont., manhunt prompts questions from cottagers near shootout
Cottagers who live near the area where murder suspect Lucas MacDonald was captured say they didn't realize how much danger they were in.
Car dealerships in Canada, U.S. disrupted by multi-day outage after cyberattacks
CDK Global, a company that provides software for thousands of auto dealers in the U.S. and Canada, was hit by back-to-back cyberattacks on Wednesday. That led to an outage that continued to impact many of their operations on Friday.
Shiny monolith removed from mountains outside Las Vegas. How it got there is still a mystery
A strange monolith found jutting out of the rocks in a remote mountain range near Las Vegas has been taken down by authorities.
It's the longest bridge ever built in Peru, and so far, it goes nowhere
It is the longest bridge ever built in Peru, a massive structure of cement and iron spanning the Nanay River as it connects to untouched areas of the Peruvian Amazon. So far, it goes nowhere.
Skin cancer signs: How can you tell if a suspicious spot is serious?
Doctors say changes in the skin are normal as you age, from spots of various colours to dark streaks in nails. But sometimes, they're not innocuous.