Kathleen Harris reports that a freedom of information request revealed a number of data security breaches involving Statistics Canada:
There have been several cases of government-issued laptops containing confidential personal information stolen from employees’ homes or vehicles. In at least two incidents, field interviewers had left a sticky note with the password with the portable computer.
[…]
A letter from Wayne Watson, director general of Investigations and Inquiries Branch of the Privacy Commissioner’s office, called a March 2007 breach of the employment records of 66 enumerators and crew leaders for the 2006 census “a serious matter.” Documents were left in surplus filing cabinets and sold at a Crown Assets Auction in Edmonton.
Read more in the Toronto Sun.