Loan records vanish (1.3 million files, Texas students' names/SS#)

[rainbow4321]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/060206dntexloandata.2218db20.html

Don't breathe easy just because your student loans are long paid off: Names and Social Security numbers from accounts closed more than a decade ago were among at least 1.3 million records recently lost by a computer contractor for the Texas student loan company.

The Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp., created in 1979, urged anybody who has ever borrowed through the agency to verify whether his or her records were among those on an unspecified piece of computer equipment that disappeared May 24. "I think anybody who has concerns should go ahead and contact our call center," spokeswoman Kristin Boyer said.

Ms. Boyer said the corporation is required by state and federal laws to keep records for at least five years after loans are paid off, longer for loans that had delinquencies, she said. There is no time limit after which dormant records are purged, she said.

<snip>
The current estimate of missing records represents about 10 percent of the company's borrowers. The number might rise, she said, because the companies are still working to identify which files were on the missing apparatus.

[bluestateguy]

1. Does this mean their loans are forgiven?

Maybe they lost the payment information too? One can only hope.

[rocktivity]

2. My final student loan payment was for ten cents.

And they hounded me for it until I sent them a check.

Vets, credit card holders, phone records, now Texan students. I seriously doubt this is the act of entrepeneurs who are selling the data on the black market.

:headbang:
rocknation

[On the Road]

3. Ah, the Debt Records!

Target of Jewish zealots and Tyler Durden alike.

[mbperrin]

4. Yep, privatizing government functions is always best, ain't it?

Look for zombie loan collectors to begin sending letters about the "errors" in these accounts, now showing a balance due. Collect an average of even $100 per account makes it worth more than $130 million, who wouldn't pay 10 cents a name for that kind of list?

[donsu]

5. I think all these personal records being lost or stolen is a planned act

by the bushmilhousegang.

there are too many going missing for it to be happenstance

[tanyev]

6. 175 incidents since Feb 05. Are we feeling safer yet?

Thanks for the perfect tie-in for me to post my new obsession:

A Chronology of Data Breaches Reported Since the ChoicePoint Incident

May 2,
2006 Ohio University
(Athens, OH) Hackers accessed a computer system of the school's alumni relations department that included biographical information and 137,000 Social Security numbers of alum. 300,000

May 2,
2006 Georgia State Government
(Atlanta, GA) Government surplus computers that sold before their hard drives were erased contained credit card numbers, birth dates, and Social Security numbers of Georgia citizens. Unknown

May 4,
2006 Idaho Power Co.
(Boise, ID) Four company hard drives were sold on eBay containing hundreds of thousands of confidential company documents, employee names and Social Security numbers, and confidential memos to the company's CEO. Unknown

May 5,
2006 Wells Fargo
(San Francisco, CA) Computer containing names, addresses, Social Security numbers and mortgage loan deposit numbers of existing and prospective customers may have been stolen while being delivered from one bank facility to another. Unknown

May 11,
2006 Ohio University
Hudson Health Center
(Athens, OH) Names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and medical information were accessed in records of students dating back to 2001, plus faculty, workers and regional campus students. 60,000

May 12,
2006 Mercantile Potomac Bank
(Gaithersburg, MD) Laptop containing confidential information about customers, including Social Security numbers and account numbers was stolen when a bank employee removed it from the premises, in violation of the bank's policies. The computer did not contain customer passwords, personal identification numbers (PIN numbers) or account expiration dates. 48,000

May 19,
2006 American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
(New York, NY) An unencrypted hard drive containing names, addresses and Social Security numbers of AICPA members was lost when it was shipped back to the organization by a computer repair company. 300,000

May 22,
2006 Dept. of Veterans Affairs
(Washington, DC) Data of all American veterans who were discharged since 1975 including names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth was stolen from a VA employee's home. The employee was not authorized to take the files home to work on a data collation project. The data did not contain medical or financial information, but may have disability numerical rankings. 26,500,000

May 23,
2006 Univ. of Delaware
(Newark, DE) Security breach of a Department of Public Safety computer server potentialy exposes names, Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers. 1,076

May 23,
2006 M&T Bank
(Buffalo, NY) Laptop computer, owned by PFPC, a third party company that provides record keeping services for M & T's Portfolio Architect accounts was stolen from a vehicle. The laptop contained clients' account numbers, Social Security numbers, last name and the first two letters of their first name. Unknown

May 24,
2006 Sacred Heart Univ.
(Fairfield, CT) Computer containing personal information including names, addreses and Social Security numbers was breached. Unknown

May 24,
2006 American Red Cross, St. Louis Chapter
(St. Louis, Dishonest employee had access to Social Security numbers of donors to call urging them to give blood again. The employee misused the persoal information of at least 3 people to perpetrate identity theft and had access to the personal information of 1 million donors. 1,000,000


TOTAL 83,114,945 (Since Feb 05)

Read the entire list at:
http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm

[donsu]

7. thank you so much - something's fishy about all this missing info

nt

[Daphne08]

12. I've been thinking the same thing, but cannot figure out what's

behind it.

[bananas]

9. Have you noticed any patterns?

What do you think is going on - random unrelated thefts,
or something more sinister?

[tanyev]

13. I wish someone with more savvy in these matters would weigh in.

Certainly, some of the incidents are just plain carelessness with no criminal intent. Some of the incidents were probably done with criminal intent, but by one person or small groups of persons who saw an opportunity in front of them. But when you end up with that many incidents in such a short time, many of them with very large quantities of data, I wonder if there isn't something more organized behind it.

And yes, there are large crime organizations who purchase and use data for all kinds of things, but my mind keeps going back to what Sibel Edmonds has tried to testify about, that there is a nexus where corrupt politicians, illegal weapons sales, drug sales and terrorism all overlap. It's entirely conceivable that data mining could be part of that equation, too. I hope I'm wrong.

:tinfoilhat:

[Blaq Dem]

10. It looks like a trend, doesn't it?

Credit cards, VA documents, student loans... what's next? I think these people have lost their damn minds.

[Rex]

8. In a real country, those parties would be liable for damages.

In this country, however, when our records get lost our stolen it is just 'to bad', tsk tsk. I wish we had a real country again; one where people are held accountable for their incompetence (I understand, we would finally have to admit Bush is worthless and the MSM just ain't ready yet). :eyes:

[Sequoia]

11. Let's see now: bank records, Veteran's records, student's records

ALL STOLEN....I smell a giant rat.