The Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA) has revealed that the CPA Canada website was compromised by hackers , allowing unauthorized access to information members' personal . The data breach affects more than 329,000 members and other stakeholders.
CPA Canada is a national organization with more than 217,000 members. It is one of the largest national accounting bodies in the world.
The national accounting organization was created by the union of three other Canadian accounting organizations: Society of Management Accountants of Canada (CMA Canada), Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), and Certified General Accountants of Canada (CGA-Canada).
Warning to affected members
Following the discovery of the data, CPA Canada took steps to secure the compromised systems and notified affected individuals.
“The information involved is primarily related to the distribution of CPA Magazine and includes personal information such as names, addresses, email addresses, and employer name,” the breach notification states.
According to the organization, passwords and full credit card numbers were also exposed. However, this information was encrypted.
CPA Canada also contacted agencies , the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and authorities to inform them of the data breach.
“Safeguarding information is one of our most important responsibilities and we sincerely regret any concerns this incident may cause,” said CPA Canada President and CEO Joy Thomas.
CPA Canada also urges its members to be cautious, as phishing attacks against them.
According to the organization, the attack on CPA Canada's website and subsequent data breach were discovered after a phishing campaign targeting its members in April.
The organization sent a notice to all its members warning of the ongoing phishing campaign on April 24, 2020.
“We have been made aware of suspicious email notifications that members are receiving. The emails are requesting a change of CPA Canada password, due to a breach at cpacanada.ca,” the organization said in a notice sent out.
“Members are urged not to follow instructions in suspicious emails encouraging them to change their CPA Canada password . ”
“CPA Canada continues to monitor the security of its platform and is not experiencing anything unusual. Additionally, the password reset process remains secure,” the notice said.
