The state office that handles college loans and scholarship applications announced Monday they are missing a file containing information from FAFSA and TOPS applications after waiting almost a month to notify those affected by the loss. Melanie Amrhein, director of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance, said the public should be aware that information generally used in identity theft like names and social security numbers were compromised. But added security measures placed on the data make it unlikely that anyone will be able to decipher the missing information. The office learned of the loss on Sept. 20. Amrhein said the office took nearly a month to notify students because they were attempting to locate the disk before deciding it was missing and then were conducting an investigation through the Attorney General's office. LSU System spokesman Charles Zewe said the University did not learn of the breach until Monday at 3:30 p.m. when a student at the University of New Orleans contacted him after seeing a brief story on a New Orleans television station's Web site. "We have still not been 'officially' notified that there is a problem in a letter from LOFSA, but the System Office has moved to notify our campuses as quickly as possible," Zewe said. "While LSU acknowledges that mistakes happen, and there is no indication yet that any personal financial data has been compromised, it is very disturbing that it took almost a month to notify the universities and their students that there might be a significant problem." Kris Wartelle, public information director for the Attorney General, said the office is conducting an investigation about the lost file but refused to say exactly when her office became aware of the problem. "We have just been contacted about it," Wartelle said, refusing to comment on any more details about the investigation. Amrhein said she could not disclose how many people were included in the breach. "We don't want someone to think they're sitting on a gold mine," she said. The missing files included information from TOPS applications, FAFSA applications submitted by state residents or those that included state institutions, START Saving Program applications and anyone who filed for any type of state financial aid. Amrhein said the information is kept on computers at LOSFA's office and back-up files are stored at a remote site by Iron Mountain Inc. She said the data management company picks up the back-up files daily from the LOSFA office. On Sept. 20, the company notified LOSFA that one of the disks had been lost. Amrhein said LOSFA attempted to locate the disk where it had last been seen and then determined it had been lost. She said the office then contacted the Attorney General's office to determine who should be notified about the loss. In a statement, Iron Mountain spokesman Derek Delano said the company has been working with LOSFA since the data was lost. "This incident was the result of an employee error, which we reported immediately to the state agency on Sept. 19, 2007, after learning that our driver did not follow established company procedures when loading the container onto his vehicle, leading to the loss," the statement said. "We understand that the data contained on the back-up media was compressed and requires special software and specific equipment to access, making it highly unlikely that any of the information contained on the back-up media can be viewed or used in any way." Ernie Ballard, University spokesman, said the University has no more information about the situation than what LOSFA has released. He said the University will release more information to students when they learn more. Amrhein did not say how many years worth of files were affected. LOSFA suggested students who think their information may have been compromised should enroll in a credit check program, place a fraud alert with each Credit Reporting Agency and continue to monitor their accounts for several weeks.
---- Contact Ginger Gibson at ggibson@lsureveille.com
Be the first to comment on this article!