Northern Credit Union says members' private info compromised during cyber incident

A committee working with the board of directors from both Northern Credit Union and Copperfin Credit Union has been ironing out the details of the proposed merger, which must be approved in a vote by members to become official. (File)

Northern Credit Union says members' private information was compromised during a cyber incident last month. However, a statement from Northern said there is no evidence the information was misused.

"Northern Credit Union was notified of a cybersecurity incident experienced by Celero Solutions Inc., a third-party company that provides a range of technology services to Northern and other credit unions," the company said in a statement.

"As soon as the incident was detected, Celero took immediate actions to block this incident, and limit the impact on their business and their credit union clients."

A spokesperson for the credit union declined to say how many customers had their information compromised.

"Due to the ongoing investigation, the complex and sensitive nature of the incident and to continue to protect our members, the information that we can share, at the moment, is included in the attached statement," spokesperson Liisa Woolley said in an email.

Northern Credit Union began in 1957 as Sault Civic Employees Credit Union Ltd. It has grown to become the largest in northern Ontario, with more than 70,000 customers and 24 branches.

As many as 100 credit unions in Canada were affected by the June cybersecurity incident, which was first reported by Calgary-based Celero on June 8.

"Northern obtained confirmation that Celero had taken steps to secure its systems and immediately enacted its own incident response plan, which included engaging industry-leading experts to ensure heightened security for our members and additional precautionary measures were put in place," Northern said in its Statement.

Celero informed Northern on June 15 that documents containing personal information of Northern members were likely impacted by the incident.

"Upon learning of this situation, our cybersecurity experts worked tirelessly to conduct an internal investigation and manually review all potentially accessed information," the statement said.

"Following this investigation, Northern is continuing to take action to help protect its members, including notifying affected individuals and offering credit monitoring where applicable. Impacted members will be receiving written notice of the incident."

To date, the credit union said there is no evidence that the personal information of members was misused.

“Northern Credit Union takes the privacy and security of its members very seriously," CEO Richard Adam is quoted as saying in the statement.

"As a member-driven organization, transparency lies at the heart of our approach to doing business. We are working diligently to help maintain our members’ security by offering a credit monitoring service, and we have been taking measures to remediate this situation as quickly and effectively as possible.”

Northern Credit Union members with questions on the situation can call 1-844-959-0471. For more information, click here.