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Science & Technology

Brickbat: Lost in Canada

Charles Oliver | 1.17.2013 6:00 AM

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Officials with Human Resources and Skills Canada say they can't find a portable hard drive containing personal information on 583,000 Canadians who applied for student loans between 2000 and 2006.

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Charles Oliver is a contributing editor at Reason.

Science & TechnologyGovernment failureCanada
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  1. Generic Stranger   13 years ago

    Sounds like they're hosed, eh.

  2. Whiterun Guard   13 years ago

    They were in a big rush to find the hard drive. It was from a government managed contract, not some fly by night operation.

    In his first day out of cadet school, RCMP Constable Weathers felt the heavy sidearm under his jacket - unlike most of his countrymen, he well recognized that caress of steel.

    His radio barked, "Weathers, we have a 2112 in progress at the stoplight, please respond.

    Weathers wiped the poutine from his chin, and bid farewell to King's Diner. Both hemispheres of his brain in operation now, he reviewed the crime: stolen government hard drive. He put his Mountie cap over the permanent waves in his auburn hair and got in his cruiser.
    Across the street, at the lumber mill, they were redecorating, moving pictures of the new Mayor in and the old one out. But he had no time for that, he had to get out to the traffic signals. Well signal now, after the city council, displaying tremendous grace under pressure from the traffic light lobby had torn the superfluous one down. The day was warmer than he expected, he lowered the power windows and drove off.

    "Hold your fire!" screamed the lowlife, the obvious perpetrator. But Weathers had been trained in America, and knew exactly what to do, drawing and firing in one smooth, well trained motion.."Presto," he muttered to himself.

    Weathers searched the hockey-jersey-clad corpse and found the hard drive.

    1. Pro Libertate   13 years ago

      A 2112? That's listening to illegally acquired Rush songs, right?

      1. LTC(ret) John   13 years ago

        Of course, that is why he had to be shot down.

        1. Whiterun Guard   13 years ago

          I was going to use Triumph albums, but I didn't know any.

          1. Pro Libertate   13 years ago

            Allied Forces is their best.

            You don't know the power of three-man Canadian bands.

  3. Mr Whipple   13 years ago

    Bullshit. They got the hard drive. They just can't remember the passphrase for the decryption key.

  4. Fist of Etiquette   13 years ago

    Meh, those college kids post all their personal information on the internet anyway.

    1. invisible furry hand   13 years ago

      and their drinking habits and preference for anal are relevant to their ability to repay their loans, weirdly enough

  5. Rich   13 years ago

    Letters are going out to everyone affected to tell them what steps to take to protect themselves.

    What?! Not a free year of some service?!
    Seriously, why should the "affected" have to clean up the mess the government some individual created?

    This is the second incident involving missing personal information that her department has faced in less than a month.

    Obviously one step people can take to protect themselves is to demand the department head be sacked.

  6. waaminn   13 years ago

    Will now that jsut makes a ll kinds of sense dude.

    http://www.eu-anon.tk

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