INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Toronto: Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said on Monday that cyber attackers may have
stolen the data of nearly 90,000 customers in what appeared to be the first significant assault on financial institutions in the
country.Bank of Montreal, Canada's fourth biggest lender, said on Monday it was contacted by fraudsters on Sunday who claimed they were in
possession of the personal and financial information of a limited number of the bank's customers.A spokesman for the bank said it believed
that less than 50,000 of the bank's 8 million customers across Canada were hacked
He declined to say if any customers lost money as a result of the attack.The fraudsters had threatened to make the data public, the
spokesman said, adding that the bank was working with the authorities and conducting a thorough investigation.Bank of Montreal said it
believed the attack originated from outside the country and was confident the exposures that led to the theft of customer data had been
closed off.Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Canada's fifth biggest lender, said fraudsters contacted the lender on Sunday claiming they
had electronically stolen personal and account information of 40,000 customers of its Simplii direct banking brand.CIBC said it has not yet
confirmed the cyber breach but is taking the claim seriously
CIBC said customers at its main banking division were not affected.Both banks said they were contacting customers and advising them to
monitor their accounts and report any suspicious activity.Other Canadian banks said they had not been affected.Shares in BMO were down 0.3
percent and CIBC was off 0.3 percent.Canada's six biggest banks have been collaborating along with the Bank of Canada to enhance their
defenses against cyber attacks
The Bank of Canada said earlier this month that some attacks would inevitably succeed but it has recovery mechanisms in place to limit the
damage.Cyber attacks are increasingly common
Last year, credit monitoring firm Equifax said information on about 146.6 million names, 146.6 million dates of birth, 145.5 million U.S
social security numbers, 99 million addresses and 209,000 payment card numbers and expiration dates, were stolen in a cyber attack.©
Thomson Reuters 2018(This story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
