Northern Credit Union offers free credit monitoring after cybersecurity incident

THUNDER BAY — Northern Credit Union is offering customers affected by a recent cybersecurity incident two years of free credit monitoring services.

Customers may subscribe to services offered by Equifax at no charge.

The offer is made in a letter from the Sault Ste. Marie credit union, which is the largest in Northern Ontario.

It says it was notified in early June by Celero Solutions Inc., a company that provides a range of technology services to various credit unions, that Celero had experienced a cybersecurity incident.

According to the letter, Celero took immediate action to block the incident and limit the impact on its clients, and that it initially did not believe that Northern's systems and data had been impacted.

Subsequently, however Celero and Northern determined that unauthorized access was obtained to personal information including member number, account number, address, phone number, date of birth and SIN.

The number of customers affected has not been disclosed.

"While there is no evidence that any personal information has been misused, as a result of this incident Northern is taking all possible actions, including offering all individual affected members enrollment in Equifax's credit monitoring service," the letter states.

The service is Equifax's Complete Premier plan.

NCU says a subscription will enable customers to detect any potentially fraudulent activity on their Equifax credit report.

The credit union says Celero has also taken steps to secure its systems, and that NCU has enhanced its own security measures.

In a statement last month, NCU said it encourages its members to remain vigilant and report any anomalies in their financial activities to the police and Northern Credit Union.

NCU has also established a dedicated call centre to answer customers' questions.  The phone number is 1-844-959-0471.

It says all services including branch and online banking remain secure.