An insurance company in Waterloo, Canada, has revealed that it was the victim of a hacking attack that resulted in a breach data of customer. The insurance company is Heartland Farm Mutual and was formed in 2016, after the merger of North Waterloo Farmers Mutual and Oxford Mutual.
Regarding the recent attack, CEO Louis Durocher told Global News that the security incident could have involved unauthorized access to email an employee's, which contained personal information held by the company. Heartland Farm Mutual did not provide further details about when the data.
"Our investigation revealed that the breach may have affected a small number of individuals," the statement said.
The insurance company says it has no evidence that the exposed information was used for “malicious purposes.” The company’s staff has contacted and informed affected customers and is offering them free credit monitoring services for a year as compensation.
“ Protecting personal information is a top priority for us,” Durocher said. “As soon as we learned of the incident, we took steps to prevent unauthorized access and protect the information.”
The CEO also said that the insurance company hired a special firm to investigate the incident and informed the "relevant authorities."
Finally, the company apologized to customers its for the disruption caused: “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Heartland Farm Mutual Inc. is committed to further improving security in order to avoid a similar incident.”
