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National student loan centre loses information on 583,000 Canadians
http://o.canada.com/2013/01/15/cana...c/#.USgB5UpfaSo
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The gentleman on the other end of the line sounded like he’d given the same speech 100 times already today.
He probably had. I am one of 583,000 Canadians who took out a student loan between 2000 and 2006 whose personal information was lost by the federal government. The information, we now know, was stored on an external hard drive (yes, the kind you can pick up at Best Buy) which went missing.
The information includes names, social insurance numbers, dates of birth, contact information and loan balances on any Canada Student Loans. With that information, it’s easy to get a false driver’s license (which only requires proof of name, date of birth and signature) or a birth certificate (which requires address, date of birth, gender, parents names, previous names and the information for a guarantor ) and can even be ordered online.
With a SIN, address, DOB and any other form of ID, you can open bank accounts, apply for credit and generally assume someone’s identity.
Approximately 583,000 Canadians have been placed in that danger because of insufficient security and privacy policies in Canada Student Loans.
But don’t worry. Canada Student Loans is “very sorry” for this inconvenience and assured me they are “monitoring” to make sure this information is not used criminally by whoever now has that data.
The representative I spoke to on the phone said I would be receiving a letter in the mail outlining action I can take to protect myself, including contacting credit rating firms and my bank.
“For the most part, you don’t really need to worry about anything because we’re taking care of it,” he said. “The RCMP and the Privacy Commissioner are also watching over it.”
According to Canada Student Loans, the external hard drive included:
personal information on 583,000 Canada Student Loan borrowers who were clients of the CSLP from 2000-2006. Student loan borrowers from the province of Quebec, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories during the same time period are not affected;
Student names, Social Insurance Numbers, dates of birth, contact information and loan balance of Canada Student Loan borrowers;
Personal contact information of 250 HRSDC employees;
No banking or medical information was included on the portable hard drive.
For people who have questions or want to verify if their information was on this drive, a phone line has been set up at 1-866-885-1866 (or 1-416-572-1113 for those outside of North America). That line is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, 7 days a week.
Canada Student Loans has also provided basic notes about how these people can procede.
You may wish to contact your bank concerning protecting your bank account.
Report any irregularities in your mail delivery to Canada Post, (for example, opened envelopes, missing financial statements or documents);
You may also wish to contact a Canadian credit reporting agency to monitor your credit rating. Canada’s major credit reporting agencies are Equifax and TransUnion. You can ask that a copy of your credit report be mailed to you, a service offered for free once per year. Their numbers are:
Equifax: 1-800-465-7166
TransUnion: 1-800-663-9980 (For residents of Quebec call 1-877-713-3393)
For Canadians who believe that their SIN is being used fraudulently, there are still further steps that can be taken:
File a complaint with the police. Ask for the case reference number, and the officer’s name and telephone number. If you choose to obtain a copy of the police report, make sure it states your name and SIN.
Contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501. The national anti-fraud call centre is jointly managed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ontario Provincial Police and Competition Bureau Canada. They provide advice and assistance about identity theft.
Call Canada’s two national credit bureaus. Ask for a free copy of your credit report. Review it for any suspicious activity. Also check to see if your credit file should be flagged. This will indicate that your personal information has been put at risk and may be vulnerable to fraud.
Inform your bank and creditors by phone and in writing about any irregularities.
Report any irregularities in your mail delivery to Canada Post, for example, opened envelopes, missing financial statements or documents.
Visit a Service Canada Centre and bring all the necessary documents with you proving fraud or misuse of your SIN. Also bring an original identity document (your birth certificate, or immigration or citizenship document). One of our officials will review your information and provide you with assistance and guidance.
Despite the massive breach of privacy — all because someone thought it wise to store the personal information of a half million Canadians on a portable external hard drive — Canada Student Loans assured me that all payments are expected to proceed as normal and will continue to be removed from my bank account.
But sorry for the inconvenience.
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I was one of the many affected, and its pretty scary. Im basically screwed for life potentially. They offer 6 years of credit checking, gee...
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