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annualaSo a couple of months (yes, months) ago, apparently, one of the main student loan administration centres in the country had a security breach. An external hard drive containing the personal information of several thousand borrowers and about 250 staffers disappeared. No one's admitting it was stolen; it could simply have been misplaced.* The news of this breach broke only this week.
Now, since I am still (yes, still) paying down my student debt, I was a mite concerned, as you can imagine. That's a lot of personal information there, including my social insurance number, bank accounts, etc. So today I called the hotline, and after I spent 5 minutes listening to purportedly soothing music, I spoke to a very efficient young woman, who after taking my SIN was able to tell me... my information was not affected.
Yahoo!
On the Human Resources and Social Development Canada site, there was some info on protecting one's personal information. But... they were in charge of protecting my and thousands of other students' (not to mention employees') personal information. And they didn't let anyone know it had gone missing for two months! I can't imagine how many people--many of whom must still be finding their feet financially in this cruel world--may have had their identities stolen and credit ruined by this breach. My own brother may be one of those affected. (He hasn't called the hotline yet.) I call on the Government of Canada to rectify this, and to implement greater security on personal information that is held by their various departments. This should not be happening.
*Or grown legs and walked to Mordor. :-p
Now, since I am still (yes, still) paying down my student debt, I was a mite concerned, as you can imagine. That's a lot of personal information there, including my social insurance number, bank accounts, etc. So today I called the hotline, and after I spent 5 minutes listening to purportedly soothing music, I spoke to a very efficient young woman, who after taking my SIN was able to tell me... my information was not affected.
Yahoo!
On the Human Resources and Social Development Canada site, there was some info on protecting one's personal information. But... they were in charge of protecting my and thousands of other students' (not to mention employees') personal information. And they didn't let anyone know it had gone missing for two months! I can't imagine how many people--many of whom must still be finding their feet financially in this cruel world--may have had their identities stolen and credit ruined by this breach. My own brother may be one of those affected. (He hasn't called the hotline yet.) I call on the Government of Canada to rectify this, and to implement greater security on personal information that is held by their various departments. This should not be happening.
*Or grown legs and walked to Mordor. :-p
