Seriously? The Government loses information of over 1/2 million people?!
So I am a huge news junkie and was just reading that the Federal Government (I'm in Canada) has managed to lose the personal information of over 1/2 million Canadians! They lost personal data on people who took out student loans between 2000-2006 and of course I took one out in 2001. ARGH! Obviously I'm worried that possibly my SIN (like a US SSN) could be missing and in God knows whose hands. Well they of course set up a number for worried people to call but we can't call until Monday! lol I grabbed some Dark Chocolate covered almonds as I was reading about it but pushed them away, but I'm NOT a happy camper right now!
"No banking or medical information was included on the portable external hard drive"
"The federal government, however, says it does not have any reason to expect criminal intent with the latest incident, or that the information has been accessed or used for fraudulent purposes."
This happened almost 3 months ago I think youll be just fine.
I had to tell my bf about it when I saw it cause he has loans from that period too but yeah not surprised. Student loans haven't been exactly grand here have they , I find they are always screwing something up.
I hope so misspixie but it's very worrisome, especially since they lost personal information of thousands of disability claimants that they told us about within the last few weeks as well. Like they haven't learned to secure data? lol I couldn't care about medical info, student loan debts, (paid off) or that stuff but it's the SIN that has me spooked.
But like how many millions of people I'm going to be on the phone for hours Monday to see if my info was involved. I did avoid the urge to binge eat (total stress eater which is my vice) by taking a nap. It worked well and now that I feel rested I don't feel like I have to tackle the fridge lol
SherryQuinn I hope your BF isn't one of the affected but best to make sure next week. I think I've moved 3 times and got married since my loan so I figure I should call and not rely on them mailing me anything lol
Hope it's going to be okay, SweetTreat80. To be honest, I would be freaking out pretty bad, too! Anything to do with student loans gives me heart palpitations, lol.
Good for you for not bingeing! Would have only made you feel worse by now.
I know here in the states you can do a few things to help when you feel your information has been compromised. You can put a fraud alert or freeze on your credit report with the three major bureaus. You can also sign up for a credit monitoring company that will alert you of even the smallest changes, including new credit inquiries, accounts, changes to account limits, etc.
I'm not sure how similar the credit systems work in Canada versus the US but you may check on some of these options. It'll give you some peace of mind.
vabs I'm hoping that out of almost 600k records that mine isn't included but it totally would be my luck that it is lol I'll call the Government line Monday as will 2 other friends potentially affected by it and we'll see at that point if there is anything to worry about.
XLMuffinTop, I didn't even think to call my bank or anything just to let them know there is a possibility of an issue there but I will for sure. Thanks. I will also look into contacting the credit bureaus, just to be safe.
Soooo I called the Government and their answers were shifty at best. "Um well we've been told that your info should come up flagged if you're affected"
So am I affected I ask.
"Um well nothing shows flagged so I guess not."
*sighs* a friend of mine was told outright that he was affected and he actually had a charge on his credit card with AirAfrica that he didn't authorize. Needless to say there is now a class action lawsuit under way here in Canada for anyone affected by this. Almost 600,000 profiles of sensitive personal information up and walking out of a Government office is just not acceptable. I have contacted all credit cards and credit bureaus just incase.
I think there can be a class action lawsuit but if you suffer no damages you wont see anything. If youve had charges to to your card and your card wont cover them as fraudulent youll get something but only if you can prove the charge to your card was a direct result of the information lost. However:
"No banking or medical information was included on the portable external hard drive"
The Air Africa charge came from somewheres else, probably via an internet hack not from the missing information unless your friend can prove that the info lost was obtained then used to get another credit card with the same number and info as the one your friend has and that the charge was then made. I dont think this happened and the two events are completely unrelated.
It was months ago, it may very well be an issue of loss aka in the garbage by accident instead of theft for fraudulent purposes. I bet if this info wasnt released you would never know of this issue as nothing has happened. Like the release said theres no reason to think this was theft for purposes of using the info. Its quite possible the stick got thrown out by accident and nothing bad will happen.
Im not sure if people are making more of what might be gosh forbid than what actually happened early November of last year.
misspixie, the information that was contained did include social insurance numbers. With a SIN you can get access to pretty much everything so it's possible to get access to credit card information with it. If it landed in the wrong hands that is. It was contained on a portable hard drive and it's the second security breach that happened in November of citizens information going missing. Of course we didn't learn about it until this month but that's just how the Government rolls lol As for the credit card charge it could be from somewhere else and total coincidence but it also might not be.
In November the Government also lost data of over 5000 Canadians that was on a USB Stick. I'm happy there is a class action lawsuit because with 2 incidents in the same month from the same Government dpt of information of almost 600,000 Canadians going missing, someone needs to be held accountable for that. It's just not acceptable. People don't/shouldn't just be up and walking away with personal information on external/removable hard drives.
It's good that someone, somewhere is trying to hold this department accountable for their blasé attitude regarding others personal and sensitive information.
In the mean time, I would still look at freezing your credit reports and signing up for a monitoring system that alerts you of the smallest change or the Canadian equivalent. It's easier to take some steps now and keep it from happening that it is to clean up the mess of someone stealing your identity.
Yup, great way to spend public funds, fighting off a lawsuit over something where no damages happened. Youll only see a payout if you can show damages and right now nobody can.
Lawsuits arent about holding people accountable, its a way to trying to get a payout over someones error. Your assuming that someone said hahaha Im going to UP and WALK away with this data, really mess people up. I think thats pretty sad to think that way. Ill bet the person who lost that stick feels like poop, knows what he or she did was stupid and regrets putting everyone in the spotlight and for causing such a commotion. I'll bet that person has it already on their file cause Ive worked government and this does happen and itll follow that person forever cause itll be there forever. I'll bet that person has had to really lean on family and friends not knowing what the consequences which are rightly earned by the way would be for a silly mistake. I'll bet that persons family is also stressed too hoping that things will work out for them. Its not just about you and your lost SIN number. We forget theres a person at the other end of the hard drive. Its easier to blame the faceless government and assume this was done out of a need for fun or as a malicious act or something. I feel bad for the person involved. My info was compromised too but I choose to feel for that person and know that this wasnt malicious as you imply and to forgive as I would want to be forgiven if I messed up that bad at work. I personally also feel sad for our future if every issue is a lawsuit.
As for SIN numbers, well, of course theres concern. My point is that as nothing has happened and its almost 4 months ago you really dont have alot to actually worry about. If this was stolen for illegal purposes then the SIN numbers would be compromised long ago. Crooks dont wait on this stuff, they use it as soon as possible because the longer its out there the greater the chance that the info wont be usable.
As the article said there seems to be no intention of theft for illegal purposes. We spend alot of time imagining the worst case what if scenario when the reality is that yes the stick was lost and no nothing bad has happened.
One credit card charge cant be associated with this loss it makes no sense and thats not how credit cards work. Ive had fradulent charges to my card before and it had nothing to do with my SIN number. When you lose a card and go to the credit card center they dont ask for your SIN they ask a series of other questions and if you dont have the answers via social network hacking you wont get access.
Just saying theres no reason to panic and no reason to overreact. And if you choose to incur more public costs by suing even though you wont see a dime as no damages were incurred well I feel bad for the rest of us who foot the bill because now your making the rest of us suffer when you havent suffered a thing. When did everything become a lawsuit? I choose to live a life of compassion and forgiveness not lawsuits and anger especially when nothing bad has happened as a result of someones unfortunate mistake. I hope I'm treat the same way, with compassion, when I mess up.
The reason the department needs to be held accountable in some form or fashion is due to the fact that it happened not once, but twice in a very short time period, according to the OP. That is careless and I do work for the government. Unfortunately, if no one makes a stink about it there's little incentive to increase security measures and policies. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Ya I guess we will disagree.
I just dont think a lawsuit equals accountability. There are other more effective ways to get accountability than the lawsuit fallback. In fact lawsuits are just costly confrontational events with no real winners except maybe the lawyers. They dont address processes procedures or actual events, meaning that there is no change just a big costly fight. It might be more productive to figure out why this happened and what can be instituted so that it doesnt happen again instead of asking for money to compensate a person who has no compensatable damages.
Fair enough. But I don't think accountability comes in lawsuit form only. I know if we screw up enough we lose state appropriations, so... less money. It hasn't happened in years but that really gets the top ticked.
Seriously? The Government loses information of over 1/2 million people?!
