Message sent on behalf of Nick Pszeniczny, Executive Vice-President, Advisory Network, Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life
Equifax breach update
You may receive inquiries from clients or have questions yourself regarding the breach of privacy at United States-based Equifax Inc. reported on Sept. 7, 2017. Equifax has reported the breach may affect over 140 million U.S. consumers, and as many as 100,000 Canadian consumers may have also been affected. The information compromised includes names, addresses, social insurance numbers and some credit card information.
Like other financial institutions, our organization uses Equifax for a variety of services. Equifax has advised that any data sent by our organization to Equifax in connection with these services is stored on Equifax’s Canadian systems, which they have advised were not subject to the breach. Based on this statement, we believe none of our customers or advisors have been impacted by the Equifax breach as a result of our organization’s use of Equifax’s services.
The breach is now contained, according to Equifax and Equifax Canada will be contacting the impacted customers directly by mail and offering them free credit card monitoring and identity theft protection. As noted, we understand that none of our customers or advisors have been affected by the breach based on the services we leverage Equifax for. If you or any of your customers have used Equifax independently, you can reach out to them directly to determine if you have been impacted in the breach.
Any inquiries should be sent to Equifax Canada at equifaxCanadainquery@equifax.com.
We will continue to assess the situation and consider appropriate steps as further information is forthcoming from Equifax. We take the protection of our customers’ and advisors’ personal information seriously and only share information with consent or as allowed by law.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has contacted Equifax with regards to the breach.
Please communicate the following messages to your clients if you are asked about this situation.
We have been advised by Equifax that data sent by our organization to Equifax in connection with service requests is stored in Equifax’s Canadian systems. Equifax advises the Canadian systems were not subject to the breach.
- Based on this statement, we believe none of our customers or advisors have been impacted by the Equifax breach as a result of our organization’s use of Equifax’s services.
- IIf your clients have used Equifax independently, they can reach out to them directly to determine if they have been iimpacted in the breach.
- Any inquiries should be sent to Equifax Canada at equifaxCanadainquery@equifax.com.
- Equifax Canada will be contacting the impacted customers directly by mail and offering them free credit monitoring and identity theft protection
- Our organization uses Equifax for various services. We take the protection of our customers’ and advisors’ personal information seriously and only share information with consent or as allowed by law.
- Suggested best practices for these situations:
- Consider monitoring your Equifax credit score
- Monitor your credit cards and accounts regularly and keep a close eye out for any transactions you did not authorize. Report any issues to your financial institution right away.
- Report any identified concern involving a possible crime to local police.
- Report any incidents involving a scam or fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
- Advise your bank and credit card companies if you think you have been targeted for identity fraud, and close any accounts and cancel any cards that may have been compromised.