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Government agency waits two months to inform stakeholders of data breach


June 5, 2008   by Canadian Underwriter


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Thousands of Prairie farmers were notified, two months after the fact, that their personal and financial information was the subject of a data breach, the Winnipeg Sun has reported.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada sent out letters to nearly 32,000 canola producers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, informing them a laptop was stolen containing their names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, bank account numbers and SINs, the Winnipeg Sun reported.
The laptop belonged to the Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA), an agency that runs government farm programs.
The CCGA had decided not to inform their members at all, saying the potential risks weren’t great enough, the Sun continued. Agriculture Canada reported the breach to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and decided to inform producers.
“It is clear that unprotected laptops remain a huge issue which companies must address,” Jennifer Stoddard, federal privacy commissioner, said in her annual report. “Many breaches related to electronically-stored data, often customer information stored on stolen laptop computers.
“Almost nine in 10 people whose data was compromised by a self-reported breach in 2007 were put at risk because their personal information was held in an electronic format that was either not secured or lacked adequate protection mechanisms such as firewalls and encryption.”
Rick White, general manager of the CCGA, told the Winnipeg Sun the laptop has security features that would prevent someone from accessing the data. But, Agriculture Canada spokesman Sean Malone told the paper that it is possible that computer hackers could access the data.


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