This sounds like it might qualify as one of the worst – if not, THE worst – insider breach of 2011.
When people affiliated with the Justice Institute of British Columbia starting seeing their homes shot at or set on fire, the RCMP began an intensive investigation.
That probe has now culminated in the firing of an Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) employee who accessed information on dozens of people, including 13 people victimized by the shooting/arson incidents, RCMP said Wednesday.
“We can now state the investigation revealed a link to an ICBC employee, who allegedly accessed personal information of 65 individuals, including the 13 identified victims,” Chief Supt. Janice Armstrong of the Lower Mainland District Regional Police Service said in a statement. “That employee, along with other individuals, is under continued police investigation.”
Read more on Vancouver Sun.
The coverage doesn’t discuss what the employee’s motivation may have been, but QMI Agency reports that none of the victims, all of whom were students associated with the college, were harmed or appear to have been involved in criminal activity.
The Justice Institute of British Columbia provides training programs for the public safety sector as well as programs in community and social justice and health sciences. It is not clear which program the 13 victims or the other 52 individuals whose were accessed are enrolled in. Nor is it confirmed that the other 52 individuals are all affiliated with JIBC.
JIBC issued a statement on their web site today, but like the RCMP’s press statement, it offers no clue as to why an employee of ICBC would be involved in any attacks or arson. Nor is there any indication whether the employee accessed the information and passed it on to other(s) or used the information directly. None of the shootings or arsons occurred on JIBC campuses.
CKNW quotes Sergeant Peter Thiessen of the RCMP as saying:
“I’m not in a position to share what we believe some possible motives may have been. But we are looking at number of different scenarios.”
Thiessen says that ICBC employee and other people are under continued police investigation.
Update of February 11, 2012: Still no new break in the case.