The Martlet

UVic students and staff are eagerly awaiting more information about the break-in and personal information theft in the UVic Administrative Services Building that occurred the weekend of Jan. 7 and 8.

In the meantime, students and staff expect the university to take responsibility and reimburse any individual banking and credit costs related to the theft.

UVic has agreed to reimburse employees for credit monitoring for one year.

“A few days ago we talked with some security experts just to get a better understanding of the best course of action for our members. Their advice was that two years of credit monitoring would be appropriate. So based on that, we wrote a letter to the university requesting two years of credit monitoring,” says Professional Employee’s Association (PEA) Communications Officer Brett Harper. PEA is the union that represents UVic’s administration and academic professionals.

According to the Equifax Canada website, credit monitoring costs $14.95 per month, or $149.95 for the year.

“So they’ve supplied a year’s worth, which is a step in the right direction, but we would like to see UVic fulfil the request for two years based on the advice we received,” says Harper.

The effects of the security breach will not be short-lived, and affected employees will have to be careful for years to come.

Fourth-year business student Susanne Murphy has been employed with the university since October 2008.

“Since the break-in, I’ve had to close and re-open my bank account and call Equifax and TransUnion to put a flag on my credit accounts. It’s taken over half an hour for each call that had to be made — so roughly one and a half hours,” says Murphy. “I’ve been lucky because I personally have not had to pay anything related to changing bank accounts or anything, but the university has said that they will reimburse people for those costs, which is good.”

PEA wants to ensure that reimbursement will also occur long term if need be.

“Any fees associated with the theft of personal information, it is our hope and our expectation that UVic will reimburse employees for that,” says Harper.

The Privacy Commissioner’s report as well UVic’s Internal Review is much awaited by PEA, as well as employees who are still wondering how this could have happened.

“We’re looking forward to being briefed on UVic’s security review and we’re also looking forward to viewing the Privacy Commissioner’s report when it does come out,” says Harper.

It is clear that some employees are taking the situation less seriously than others. Even if your mortgage and paycheques don’t depend on the same account, caution may still be in order.

“Our advice to our members is that they should take the advice from UVic, which is to go to their bank, to have their account numbers changed just to be safe rather than sorry,” said Harper.

“Although it has been a nuisance and inconvenience, there is a silver lining. This may help students, staff and faculty be more aware of their personal information and make sure they pay attention to their accounts,” says Murphy.

So far the Saanich police have recieved four reports of misuse of personal information. After review, they have determined two of them appear to be connected to the break-in.

In a press release, University of Victoria President David Turpin says he is commissioning a review to be performed by an external party. University officials say they are also engaging privacy and security experts from the firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP.

For information about how to set-up credit monitoring and arrange payment: http://www.uvic.ca/resources/infobreach/index.php