On Oct. 16, Loyola’s Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid sent out a campus-wide email in reference to a security breach in the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Aid. According to WWL’s broadcast about the incident, a driver for Iron Mountain Inc., a company specializing in data storage, was carrying a tackle box with the backup database on Sept. 19 when the tackle box was lost. The database contains some financial and personal information, including the names and Social Security numbers of Louisiana residents participating in, or considered for participation in, Louisiana Office of Student Financial Aid programs. According to the LOSFA Web site, this includes anyone who participates in the START Saving Program, who has filled out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, who has applied for or received a Tuition Opportunity Program for Students, or who has applied for or received student financial aid in Louisiana in the past ten years. LOSFA will contact those who may be affected, but meanwhile, it encourages all Louisiana students to check their status on the LOSFA Web site.
Because of this incident, financial and personal information – including names and Social Security numbers for all participating Louisiana college students – is in jeopardy. All students whose information was on the database can potentially have their identity stolen. Neither Iron Mountain nor LOSFA have provided any sort of indemnification regarding the matter.
This isn’t the first incident for Iron Mountain.
According to a CBS affiliate, two businessmen were walking down a Minnesota street when they discovered three personal checks with names, addresses, bank account numbers and driver’s license numbers blowing down the street. The men found the checks down the street from a document shredding company owned by Iron Mountain, the same company responsible for LOSFA’s lost database. According to the CBS station, a spokeswoman for Iron Mountain said the company was in the process of moving out of the office, and it’s possible that some un-shredded checks ended up on the street.
These two incidents are prime examples of the negligence of Iron Mountain. The irresponsibility of one driver has the potential of ruining the financial well-being of every Louisiana college student who applied for in-state financial aid. LOSFA, whose mission is to keep Louisiana residents in-state by awarding scholarships and financial aid, has put its scholars at risk. How can Louisiana residents trust this government institution if it allows such important information to be thrown around so carelessly? Alarmists all over the state lament a brain drain of our brightest minds pursuing careers elsewhere – well, the ones who braved it out and stayed in-state for their education, a TOPS scholarship in hand, could now wake up with their Social Security number in the hands of someone trying to buy a loft in the Warehouse District.
Melanie Amrhein, director of LOSFA, said she “hopes the tackle box is harmlessly in a landfill.”
On behalf of all in-state students on or up for financial aid, why don’t you get up from your desk and make sure it’s definitely in a landfill?
