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By TYLER HAMILTON
BUSINESS REPORTER
Jun. 1, 2006
Toronto software provider Hummingbird Ltd. has found itself
at the
centre of an embarrassing privacy accident involving the
social
security numbers of 1.3 million American students.
Hummingbird disclosed yesterday evening that one of its
employees lost
a piece of computer equipment that contained the names and
social
security numbers of customers who borrowed funds from Round
Rock,
Tex.-based Texas Guaranteed, a non-profit company that
administers a
U.S. family education loan program.
"The privacy of customer data is of utmost importance
to us and we
take our responsibility to safeguard it very seriously. We
deeply
regret that this incident has occurred," Barry Litwin,
Hummingbird’s
president and chief executive, said in a statement.
"We continue to investigate the facts surrounding this
loss of
information and are taking all necessary action in order to
ensure
that such occurrences do not happen in the future."
Hummingbird, which announced on May 26 that it is being
acquired by
Palo Alto, Calif.-based holding company Symphony Technology
Group for
$465 million (U.S.), said it has no reason to believe the
equipment
was stolen to obtain confidential data.
The company said the equipment was password-protected and
that it was
"extremely unlikely" the data would be misused.
Hummingbird was given
the data as part of a contract to develop a custom document
management
system for Texas Guaranteed.
According to information on Texas Guaranteed’s Web site, the
equipment
was lost on May 24 but Hummingbird didn’t notify the company
until
mid-afternoon on May 26, the day Hummingbird disclosed its
deal with
Symphony.
The U.S. loan provider said that customers whose information
was lost
will be notified over the coming weeks and given advice on
how to
guard against identity theft.
"Even though this information is not easily accessed
and used, and
even though the loss appears to be inadvertent, we are
issuing this
release out of an abundance of caution, because the piece of
equipment
has not been located," said Sue McMillin, president
and CEO of Texas
Guaranteed, in a statement.
The use of social security numbers as a form of
identification in the
United States has been a topic of considerable controversy
in recent
weeks. In early May, computer disks containing the social
security
numbers of 26.5 million U.S. veterans were stolen from the
U.S.
Department of Veteran Affairs, putting millions of Americans
at risk
of identity fraud.
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