Canadian Security Magazine

NDP demand answers in BC data breach

By The Canadian Press   

News Data Security

British Columbia's Opposition New Democrats are demanding answers about how the government lost a hard drive containing records of 3.4 million students from the province and Yukon.

A team of 50 bureaucrats spent much of the summer rummaging through boxes in a secret Victoria warehouse, looking for the hard drive.

Yesterday, the BC government officially declared the unencrypted hard drive lost.

NDP education critic Rob Fleming says three-and-a-half million files are now potentially in the hands of someone who could use them.

Teachers’ Union president Jim Iker says the breach is serious and there’s all sorts of information about students that shouldn’t fall into the wrong hands.

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But he adds he believes the risk to individuals is low because the data does not contain social insurance or driver’s licence numbers or financial or banking information.

Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services Minister Amrik Virk says the province’s chief information officer will review the government’s management of personal information.

He says information and privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham will conduct her own review.


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