Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, January 11, 2013

Government loses personal information of half a million student loan borrowers

The Department of Human Resources and Skills Development has lost a hard drive containing the personal information of hundreds of thousands of individuals who borrowed from the Canada Student Loans Program.

The portable hard drive contained the names, dates of birth, Social Insurance Numbers, addresses and student loans balances of 583,000 Canada Student Loans borrowers dated from 2000-2006. It also contained the personal contact information of 250 HRSDC employees.

In a news release, the department says that there is no evidence that the information has been accessed or used for fraudulent purposes. No banking or medical information was on the drive. The drive itself was used as backup storage for information.

The hard drive was first reported missing on November 5, 2012, identified during an investigation into another privacy incident at HRSDC. The incident was referred to the RCMP on January 7, 2013, according to a news release.

HRSDC is sending letters to individuals involved, although they may not have current contact information for all. The department is encouraging individuals to call a toll-free number to verify whether they are affected and to answer questions on the issue.

Starting Monday, January 14, 2013, people can call 1-866-885-1866 (or 416-572-1113 outside North America) from 8:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m. EST for information.

Quebec, Nunavut and Northwest Territories borrowers’ information was not on the drive, as these provinces and territories have their own student loan programs.

“I want all Canadians to know that I have expressed my disappointment to departmental officials at this unacceptable and avoidable incident in handling Canadians’ personal information. As a result, I have directed that departmental officials take a number of immediate actions to ensure that such an unnecessary situation does not happen again,” said Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development in a statement.

Some of the department’s new security policies include banning portable hard drives and unapproved USB keys, mandatory training for all employees on the handling of sensitive records, and new disciplinary measures for staff.

Original Article
Source: globalnews.ca
Author: Leslie Young
Topics: , , ,

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