Canada’s privacy commissioner has opened an investigation into the massive data breach at Equifax Inc. after receiving several complaints and dozens of calls from concerned Canadians.
“The investigation is a priority for our office given the sensitivity of the personal information that Equifax holds,” the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Friday in a release.
The announcement of the probe comes after Equifax disclosed last week that a cybersecurity breach exposed the personal data of about 143 million Americans and an undisclosed number of Canadians.
“Equifax has committed to notifying all impacted Canadians in writing as soon as possible,” the privacy watchdog said. The company will also offer free credit monitoring to affected individuals.
“At this point in time, it is not clear that the affected data was limited to Canadians with U.S. dealings,” the commissioner said,
The company is still working to determine the number of Canadians affected by the breach.