Unencrypted hard drive with personal information still unaccounted for

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s still unclear if personal data on an unencrypted hard drive missing from the BC Ministry of Education has been used by anyone, but the province isn’t going to be offering people affected any protection.

The BC Government is so far not providing free credit monitoring for any of the 3.4-million people involved.

The Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services fessed up about the breach earlier this week. It said the hard drive was discovered missing during an audit. The province considers the risk of fraud low as financial information was not lost.

The federal government made six years free credit monitoring available a couple years ago when it lost a hard drive with student loan information of nearly 600,000 people on it. That isn’t the case with this much larger breach. The BC government admits there is a risk of identity theft, but will only say they are considering credit monitoring.

Criminologist Yvon Dandurand with the University of the Fraser Valley says the ages, names and former addresses are enough to pose a risk. “When you are in the business of identity theft, you are not limited to one database. If you get that kind of information, you can probably relate it to other sources of information, many of them public.”

Anyone who went to school in BC between 1986 and 2009 is affected. The breach also involved Ministry of Children and Families data on child health and behavioural problems as well as retirement plans for teachers aged 53 and older. The BC government doesn’t have evidence that anyone has used the information to this point.

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