Cyber security incident involving 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 BIT students; and 2004 – 2008 BScN students

Posted on Friday, June 12th, 2015

Algonquin College recently discovered that one of our computer servers had been compromised by unauthorized cyber intruders.

As soon as this discovery was made, the server was shut down by the College, and a security investigation was undertaken by a cyber-forensics firm. This is an isolated incident that affected a single server and did not affect other College systems. Although our investigation uncovered no direct evidence that any data was actually taken, it did reveal additional intruders. Algonquin College is taking the matter seriously because some student personal information was accessible to intruders.

We regret that this incident occurred. We are reaching out to all affected students. The only possibly affected individuals were enrolled in the following programs, in the following years:

  • The Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, jointly delivered with The University of Ottawa, during the years 2007 and 2008 – a subset of applicants or students registered between 2004 and 2008 (approximately 525 individuals).
  • The Bachelor of Information Technology, jointly delivered with Carleton University, during 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 (approximately 700 individuals). Please note some students, particularly in the Summer 2008 and Fall 2012 terms are not affected.

If you are not in one of the two groups noted above, you were not affected by this incident.

If you are in one of the two groups noted above and you did not receive a notification email or letter, you can contact us at roresponse@algonquincollege.com or 1-866-921-5763 (toll free) to find out if you may possibly be affected.

Algonquin College has notified the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of Ontario of this matter, and we are working with them to address the situation.

We are notifying affected individuals and Algonquin College is covering the cost for them to receive credit bureau monitoring and identity theft protection. We have also set up an 1-800 information line to answer their questions and we are providing students with detailed information about how they can protect themselves.

Again, we sincerely regret that this incident occurred. This is a concern both for those affected and for our institutions. We take our role in safeguarding applicant and student personal information very seriously. We are committed to implementing the necessary remediation steps between the three institutions to minimize the possibility of future incidents of this nature.

 


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