MONTREAL – Bell Canada said Tuesday afternoon it has recovered data containing records for some 3.4 million customers in Quebec and Ontario that was stolen from the company.
Acting on information received by the company in mid-January, Bell corporate security and Montreal police immediately launched an investigation to identify the suspect in possession of the data and the type of information contained in the stolen material, says Bell’s press release.
Accompanied by police, Bell executed a search of two locations in Montreal Tuesday. Police now have arrested a suspect. Charges are pending. Bell customer data in the suspect’s possession has been recovered.
The customer information recovered in the investigation includes name, address, telephone number and list of Bell services. No information relating to personal identification numbers, customer credit, credit card numbers, reference checks, billing or long-distance calling details were included in the stolen material.
However, a portion of the data – approximately 5% – includes unpublished telephone numbers. Bell has already begun to contact those customers with unpublished phone numbers directly.
Bell is pursuing the investigation further to determine exactly how the data was stolen. The company is also exploring its legal rights with regard to further civil proceedings.
“Protecting the privacy of customer information is of prime importance to Bell,” adds the release. “The company has strict policies and procedures and sophisticated security systems in place to protect that information. Bell consistently ranks among the top corporations in Canada for its practices and policies when it comes to protecting the privacy of customer information.”
