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Student Loans Given, Personal Data Lost
Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
2006-08-25
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
College students generally need all the financial help they can get. As such, some of them apply for federal aid. Unfortunately, a federal site exposed the personal information of many borrowers, which, if exploited, could greatly increase their troubles. No one has reported any incidents of identity theft yet, however.
The security lapse could affect as many as 21,000 students, according to CNET's Dawn Kawamoto. The original breach has (probably) been secured. "A fix went in on Tuesday morning, and we think it's been fixed," said Lesley Pool, a spokeswoman for Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), which "created the technology for the Direct Loan Servicing feature on the Department of Education's site."
"But we're doing more testing, and until there is 100 percent certainty, the (payment and account) functionality has been taken offline," Pool continued. "It is up to the (Education) Department to say when the code is ready to go."
CNET reported that "the agency has identified all the affected users and will notify them that their information may have been compromised. But, as of Thursday afternoon, there was no notice on the department's Direct Loan Servicing Web site informing users that their security may have been breached."
"We take information security very seriously," Pool assured CNET. She "did not have any estimates" as to when site would return to full functionality. The company appears to be making a genuine effort to be helpful, however - ACS "is paying for credit-monitoring services for affected borrowers for up to a year."
Tag: Security lapse
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About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for SecurityProNews, InternetFinancialNews, SearchNewz, and WebProNews.
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