Data breaches in which tens or hundreds of thousands of records are swiped have become an almost daily occurrence, but even by those sliding standards this was a big one. Officials at the Educational Credit Management Corp., a nonprofit group that administers federal student loans, are asking the more than 3.3 million borrowers whose information was compromised to register at a Web site for free credit-monitoring services.
eSecurity Planet has the story about the latest breach, and how it fits into a troubling pattern that shows no signs of abating.
Officials at Educational Credit Management Corp. (ECMC), a nonprofit guarantor of federal student loans, is advising more than 3.3 million borrowers that their personal information was likely exposed last week after someone made off with a portable media device.
St. Paul, Minn.-based ECMC broke the bad news on its Web site, saying that theft took place sometime during the weekend of March 21 and 22. The compromised data included names, addresses, social security numbers and birth dates of more than 3.3 million, or roughly 5 percent of all students who took out almost 9 million loans in the past year.
“No savings, checking, or credit card information was included in the data,” ECMC said, however, the nonprofit organization has established a Web site for affected borrowers to register for free credit-monitoring services and other information.