[Dataloss] B.C. facility loses public's personal data

[lyger]

Courtesy PogoWasRight.org

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=e1b03e3e-d043-4e64-9a09-415a24636751&k=71796

Chad Skelton, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, September 12, 2006

VANCOUVER -- Computer tapes containing the private health and welfare 
records of "hundreds of thousands" of British Columbians were discovered 
missing from the government's main data centre in Victoria last year and 
have never been found, according to a confidential government 
investigation obtained by the Vancouver Sun.

Poor record-keeping at the facility, which is run by Telus, means it's 
impossible to confirm exactly what happened to the 31 tapes, although the 
report speculates they were most likely destroyed in error or borrowed by 
a government staffer who forgot to return them. However, the report warns 
that their disappearance is serious and "may have resulted in the 
inadvertent disclosure of the data contents."

That's a concern, the report warns, because some of the data on the tapes 
is so sensitive that it could be used "for the purposes of identity theft" 
or to "create fraudulent Care Cards" to defraud the government. Yet the 
report, which was conducted for the province by KPMG, went on to recommend 
that the public not be told about the incident.

"Government policy does not require individuals to be informed of a 
possible disclosure of personal information," the report states. 
"[Notification] is only suggested where an actual disclosure of personal 
information is known to have occurred."

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