A government agency is being criticized for losing a hard drive with personal information of almost 600,000 Canadians.
The agency, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), reported it could not find a small portable hard drive which had the information on it.
ESDC was formerly known as Human Resources and Skills Development Canada which said the device disappeared from an HRSDC office in Gatineau, Quebec in 2012.
It reportedly contained personal information on 583,000 Canadians including social insurance numbers, addresses and information on whether a person was bankrupt or deceased.
The information primarily involved recipients of Canada Student Loans. In some cases it also drive also contained a borrower’s gender, language preference and marital status.
The information primarily involved recipients of Canada Student Loans. In some cases it also drive also contained a borrower’s gender, language preference and marital status.
The drive also had the home addresses and contact information for 250 federal bureaucrats.
An investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner was tabled today (Tuesday March 25, 2014). It reported that the hard drive was last seen in August 2012, but only reported as missing on Nov. 5 of that year when a department worker went looking for it.
The report says the device was neither password-protected nor encrypted and was “often left unsecured for extended periods of time without being stored in a filing cabinet,” the report says — in violation of government policy.
The ESDC offices were searched several times, four employees computers searched, and 15 others interviewed but it has not been determined if the device was lost or stolen
ESDC has disciplined the employees involved, but has refused to disclose the sanctions, citing privacy laws.
“This incident should serve as a lesson for all organizations,” says Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier. “Protecting personal information cannot be ensured by having policies on paper. Policies must be put into practice each and every day and monitored regularly.”
In late December, also in 2012 and about ten days before the hard drive was reported missing, HRSDC revealed that a USB key containing Social Insurance numbers, birthdays and information on medical conditions for about 5,000 people was also gone.
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