Data of 3.3M People Stolen from Student Loan Firm
The information of 3.3 million people has been stolen from a student loan company that guarantees loans nationally.
The Washington Post reports that the information was stolen from the headquarters of the Educational Credit Management, a nonprofit that is the designated loan guaranty agency in Virginia and two more states.
A press release from ECMC says that while no bank account or other financial account information was included in the data, details stolen include names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers.
Funnily enough it would seem that the data was stolen the old-fashioned way; ECMC said the theft involved portable media and occurred at its headquarters the weekend of March 20-21.
The Washington post cites Paul Kelash, a spokesman for ECMC, who says the number of borrowers affected in Virginia is 628,038; in Maryland, 76,939; and in the District, 17,553. Though ECMC is designated as the guaranty agency for Virginia, another spokesman for the company, Dave Hawn, told WP that "the designation is nominal" and the number of Virginia loans is more a reflection on the long history there.
ECMC has teamed up with Experian to offer those affected a suite of free credit protection services. These include 12 months of comprehensive credit protection services, access to certified ID theft specialists and insurance against ID theft.
For more details click through to the ECMC Website.
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US folks learn a lot from brits
How does 628,038 + 76,939 + 17,553 = 3.3 million?
BTW, with names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers, they have access to your account.
Someone's gonna burn for this one!!!
i wonder if they alerted everyone this affected? haha that would suck if they didn't.
Is the thief in your image breaking into a mac? That isn't very accurate, the cybercriminals figured out long ago there aren't enough users in that market.
Hmmmm...I wonder if I was one of these people.
Well this is annoying.
Haha this seems too inconvenient. I'm 99.9 % sure they're just trying to force identity theft protection on cobsumers wallets in the long run. what the hell is 12 months going to do?
Yeah, and they make you go through CIA style background checks to get security clearance but they still use McAfee and windows firewall lololol bunch of noobs.
why they always keep data like this in laptops?! Do I miss something?
Ah ok I see, somebody swapped harddrive. That is harder to do, at least I can sleep more calmly lol
Why is it that our banking info is never taken, but when it comes to your personal information especially your Social Security Number. Its like they don't try to protect you. Maybe your Social Security Number needs to be keep with your banking info, encrypted. So none of this shit happens and if it does then someone needed to do some serious hacking. With all the security out there how does this happen? Get new network specialists ECMC or take a few security classes.
This article has the worst picture I've ever seen. Why would you do that?
What about past 12 months? This information could be held for a while, then sold. Hell, the people who obtained these identities probably read the news and know they will have to wait a while to capitalize on their investment.
If I were one of the affected people, I would sue to demand this organization offer protection for many years, require the length of time to remain confidential, and to pay restitution for their mistake. Companies never learn, until you hit them in the wallet.
You mean like they did in the UK?A few people shrugged shoulders but nothing ever happens.Government IT security policy is a JOKE!!!
... This is isn't government. Good job reading.
... This is isn't government. Good job reading.
It will be soon, THANKS OBAMA!! /sarcasm
funnily? hahahahaha
i have a loan with these guys!!! i really hope i am not one!!
Just goes to prove that you are just a worthless number to big business, otherwise they would have better security protecting customer info.... They rather try to make more money by getting you to pay them to protect your info that they already have.
"The Washington Post reports that the information was stolen from the headquarters of the Educational Credit Management, a nonprofit that is the designated loan guaranty agency in Virginia and two more states."
"The Washington post cites Paul Kelash, a spokesman for ECMC, who says the number of borrowers affected in Virginia is 628,038; in Maryland, 76,939; and in the District, 17,553."
So what was the third state?
When it comes to digital data seems like nothing is safe anymore.
Ill give them 100 bucks to erase my account.
In David Scott’s words, everyone needs to be a mini-Security Officer in the modern organization today. I think Mr. Scott is right: Most individuals and organizations enjoy Security largely as a matter of luck. Anyone else here reading I.T. WARS? I had to read parts of this book as part of my employee orientation at a new job. The book talks about a whole new culture as being necessary – an eCulture – for a true understanding of security, being that most identity/data breaches are due to simple human errors. It has great chapters on security, as well as risk, content management, project management, acceptable use, various plans and policies, and so on. Just Google IT WARS – check out a couple links down and read the interview with the author David Scott at Boston’s Business Forum. (Full title is I.T. WARS: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium).