BMO and CIBC’s Simplii Financial Hacked, 40,000+ Customers See Account Info Accessed

A couple of Canada’s big banks have announced customer data may have been compromised in hacks over the weekend, reports CBC News.

Bmo simplii hacked

Simplii Financial, a subsidiary of CIBC, warned customers on Monday of a hack they were notified about on the weekend, where personal and account information of over 40,000 customers were accessed.

“We’re taking this claim seriously and have taken action to further enhance our monitoring and security procedures,” the bank’s senior vice-president Michael Martin said in a statement to CBC News.

“We feel that it is important to inform clients so that they can also take additional steps to safeguard their information,” Martin said. He added “If a client is a victim of fraud because of this issue, we will return 100 per cent of the money lost from the affected bank account.”

In a post on Facebook, Simplii told its customers the following:

We have implemented enhanced online security measures in response to a claim received on Sunday, May 27 that fraudsters may have electronically accessed certain personal and account information for some of our clients.

In addition to the steps that Simplii has taken, we recommend that clients:

• Always use a complex password and pin (eg. not 12345)
• Monitor their accounts for signs of unusual activity

Clients who notice suspicious activity are encouraged to contact Simplii Financial. If a client is a victim of fraud because of this issue, we will return 100% of the money lost from the affected bank account.

We take this matter seriously and will be reaching out individually to clients who may be impacted. Updated information will be posted here as it becomes available.

Michael Martin, SVP Simplii Financial

Yesterday, Simplii Financial tweeted “Registration for Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay are temporarily unavailable. We will post again when access is restored,” while also announcing “Email money transfers are currently delayed by up to 30 minutes.” No word if these delays are related to the hack.

BMO Also Hacked But Did Not Reveal Numbers Affected

The Bank of Montreal also revealed they were hacked, as data was stolen from their customer data base. BMO says they were tipped off by the hackers themselves. The bank did not reveal how many customer accounts were affected.

“We took steps immediately when the incident occurred and we are confident that exposures identified related to customer data have been closed off,” said BMO in a statement.

“We have notified and are working with relevant authorities as we continue to assess the situation. We are proactively contacting those customers that may have been impacted and we will support and stand by them,” added the bank.

According to Simplii, there is no sign of CIBC customers being affected by this data breach.

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