iStock photo
iStock photo

(Submitted by Anita Bathe) The BC government is investigating a missing unencrypted hard drive storing education records for 3.4 million people from 1986 to 2009.

The province says the hard drive includes information such as names, ages, schools, grades, and personal education numbers.

The province believes the risk to people affected by the data breach is low “because the data on the missing hard drive does not contain financial or banking information, social insurance numbers or driver’s licence numbers. As well, the data is at least six years old and up to 30 years old.”

But it also includes more sensitive information such as more than 800 survey results from teachers aged 53 or older on their retirement plans, and more than 9,000 personal education numbers connected to children in the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development before 2006-07. The latter includes information such as health and behaviour issues and supervision status.

It says the drive is one of two backups the ministry created in 2011.

The province notes they don’t have any any indication that any data has been accessed or used.

A Service BC info line has been set up for anyone who wants to find out whether their information might be on the drive. The line is open Monday to Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Vancouver: (604) 660-2421
Victoria: (250) 387-6121
Elsewhere in BC: 1 (800) 663-7867

When calling you’re asked to note when you went to K-12 or post-secondary school in BC.