It is a massive data breach of financial data. It includes bank account information and Social Security numbers:

“BATON ROUGE, La. — A Boston-based contractor hired to store and safeguard state scholarship and college savings account data lost a decade of backup records — including bank account numbers and student and parent Social Security numbers — during a move, officials say.

“We certainly don’t want to create any panic. But people should be aware and take the necessary steps,” said Melanie Amrhein, executive director of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance. “This is backup data off of a mainframe that contains sensitive personal information.”"

link: Company loses a decade of student financial data

Apparently this data breach happened on September 19. Nearly a month later, the news services are reporting this lapse in security. It raises the question of why there was a period of weeks without notification, when the public could have been warned and the necessary precautions taken. It is baffling why such delays are allowed to happen. It simply abets the misuse of the data and compounds a grievous error in security.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: data breach, privacy, security, identity theft, louisiana