ECMC Group Inc., a student-loan guarantee agency in Minnesota, acknowledged on Friday a data breach in which the personal information of 3.3 million borrowers, including their Social Security numbers, was compromised.
Guarantee agencies such as ECMC are the private entities that, under the U.S. government's system of federally subsidized student loans, collect government money and then turn around and pay it to private loan companies when borrowers default on their student loans.
ECMC said in a written statement that the affected borrowers would be notified and given free credit protection and monitoring services. "We deeply regret that this incident occurred and the stress it has caused our borrowers," ECMC's president and chief executive, Richard J. Boyle, said in the statement.
ECMC's admission of the data theft came one day after Congress voted to shut down the bank-based system of student lending in favor of direct lending by the Education Department, in part because of the cost and complexity of the bank-based system.
The data theft "occurred sometime during the weekend of March 20-21," the company said in its statement. The company was instructed by the FBI not to discuss the matter publicly until Friday, according to the Education Department.
"Protecting student privacy is a top priority for the department," said Justin Hamilton, a department spokesman. "We are working with ECMC to make sure that affected individuals are provided with resources to protect their information and to provide them with identity-theft insurance."
Student loan regulation now!
0 comments:
Post a Comment