The dead are also of interest to cyber criminals

Digital data is a very important commodity in the IT field.

For hackers it is a resource that can pay off a lot. For this he does not skimp on any means to obtain it. The problem is that for a very long time and even today the general opinion believes that the information that interests them much more is those of the living. While even the dead can have information that is valuable to our cyber criminals. It was in this context that the Alfred Dallaire Funeral Home told its clients that it had been hacked. Nearly 1,300 people have been affected by this data compromise.

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"When I read that there had been a security incident following my sister's death, I thought they had lost her ashes, my heart was upside down," said Diane Despatie, an estate liquidator following her sister's death. She had made contact with the Funeral Home Alfred Dallaire for the purposes of the genre. Unfortunately the consequences have been such as they are today.

"When I realized that I had just had my personal data hacked, I was angry," said the deceased's sister, who claims to have been the victim of the Desjardins leak.

"I didn't even get a call! It seems to me that when you're in the empathy business, it's not the right tone. ».

The latter received a letter from the funeral home which indicates that she had been the victim of a security incident in which an unauthorized person had access to the personal data of his clients as well as the deceased persons reported by them.

"When I read that there had been a security incident following my sister's death, I thought they had lost her ashes, my heart was upside down," Said Diane Despatie. 

While the company has indicated that information that may have been hacked during the intrusion was not used in malicious actions, many victims of the leak are not satisfied with this statement.

"I had no guarantees," said one victim, who was on condition of anonymity.

"I have to deal with my sister's estate and the theft of both of our identities. If I denounce the situation, it is for the other bereaved families, it is really not easy. Diane Despatie laments with emotion.

The funeral home offers a free subscription to the monitoring service offered by TransUnion's credit. But many victims think that was enough.

According to Julia Duchastel, Vice President of Memoria Spaces, this security incident affects only a small proportion of the funeral home's clients.

It was mentioned that an investigation was opened and computer security experts were engaged by the company that was the victim of the incident.

On the side of the deceased, it is observed that the information that has been stolen includes:

– dates of birth;

– birthplaces;

– social insurance numbers;

– the driver's licence number;

– the health insurance number;

– and the places of death;

On the parent side of the deceased, the stolen data include:

– addresses;

– the names of the parents;

– social insurance numbers;

– date and place of birth.

All of its data can make it easy for hackers to impersonate their victims.

"This is highly sought-after data. The identities of some freshly dead people are very interesting information for the malicious, unfortunately, to make a near perfect identity," notes Mr. Bancal. Cybersecurity expert.

Of course for a deceased person, identity theft could easily go unnoticed because no complaint can be made, for example.

"By the time you realize it, you'd potentially think it was the dead man who did the scam," he says. It's hurting estates. explains the specialist. He explains that one should be wary of statements that the data has not been used to me in bad activities.

"For the hacker, this information is money. There are quite a few people who think they know the dark web… Hackers, when they have this kind of data in hand, they are not going to talk about it immediately, they will use it first. , "he explains.

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