Amrik Virk, B.C. minister of technology, innovation and citizens' services, briefed the media Tuesday morning. He revealed that the B.C. government is unable to locate an unencrypted backup hard drive that contains about 3.4 million records. He said hw was told last Friday (18 Sept) about the loss, but the education ministry has been looking for the drive since August.

Amrik Virk, B.C. minister of technology, innovation and citizens' services, briefed the media Tuesday morning. He revealed that the B.C. government is unable to locate an unencrypted backup hard drive that contains about 3.4 million records. He said hw was told last Friday (18 Sept) about the loss, but the education ministry has been looking for the drive since August.
Photo Credit: CBBC

More personal data breach: this time-British Columbia

(your comments to any story can be added at the bottom of the page)

The provincial government in the west coast province of British Columbia has admitted the loss of personal information on millions of students.

The data with personal information was on an unencrypted hard drive which can no longer be found.

The hard drive contains student data from 1986 to 2009, on some 3.4 millions students from B.C and Yukon territory, including names, gender, grades, postal codes, and personal education numbers.

It alos included 825 survey results from teachers aged more than 53 years old, in 2003, on their retirement plans and also other information about cancer survivors on their education outcomes, as well as information related to 9,273 children in government care, including health data on behaviour issues and supervision status, the government said.

The government has said it considers the privacy risk low as the device contained no financial information, banking, social insurance, or driver’s licence numbers.

However others say that information could be matched with information from other sources.

'How do we ensure this never happens again?' asks Judy Arnold, Yukon's deputy education minister as Yukon reconsiders data sharing with B.C.
‘How do we ensure this never happens again?’ asks Judy Arnold, Yukon’s deputy education minister as Yukon reconsiders data sharing with B.C. © CBC

Vincent Gogolek of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association says there is cause for concern because of what’s in the data.

“It’s hard to think of something more intimate and personal than this type of information.” said Gogolek. “Psychological assessments, describing in-care status, substance abuse, family problems. Even if it’s not lost, even if it is sitting behind a filing cabinet, those people are going to be upset and rightly so.”

The government says the device may simply be misplaced and in one of hundreds of boxes  stored in archives, or accidently destroyed. It says it has no reason to believe that an individual has the hard drive or that data has been misused.

Electronic records showed the hard drive should have been located in a locked cage in a locked warehouse, but when officials looked for it, it was not there and couldn’t be found.

Yukon officials are concerned about the loss and the Yukon Teachers Association has said it was “shocked”.

The Yukon information involves exam results and detailed graduation files on thousands of students as well as names, addresses and birth dates.

B.C. collects data on Yukon students as the territory follows the B.C. curriculum and some students take distance education courses offered by B.C. schools.

Yukon’s education department says it will review its data-sharing policy with B.C.

I’m not content with just the summary we’ve been provided,” Judy Arnold, Yukon’s deputy minister of education, said. “I want more information, I want it very clear what specific data we need to be concerned about so we can follow through.”

The B.C. chief information officer has opened an investigation into the breach.

Federal government data loss March 2014

New Brunswick government data lass April 2014

Federal privacy commissioner loses data April 2014

Federal privacy commissioner concerned over data loss April 2013

Categories: Internet, Science & Technology, Politics, Society
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Do you want to report an error or a typo? Click here!

For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.