It’s probably diagnostic that I still get excited when I see a report that data on stolen devices were encrypted.
Michael Woods reports:
Someone broke in to a government building earlier this year and made off with electronic devices containing the personal information of 260 government workers, newly released documents show – a privacy breach that is only now coming to light.
Documents obtained by Metro under the Access to Information Act reveal the stolen devices contained employees’ performance agreements, grievances, travel records and other personnel files. But Public Works and Government Services Canada calls the risk of its employees’ personal information being compromised “very low” because the devices stolen from one of its offices were encrypted.
The details of the previously unreported breach are spelled out in a May 1 memo to the department’s deputy minister and an accompanying Privacy Act breach report.
The documents reveal that someone gained access to a Public Works office on the ninth floor of Edmonton’s ATB Plaza at around 6:15 p.m. on Friday, March 27.
Read more on Metro News.
The employees were not notified of the breach – or haven’t been notified yet – because the agency was waiting to hear back from the privacy commissioner’s office with their input as to whether notification was recommended.