According to PCWorld, a former employee of the U.S. Department of Education has pleaded guilty to illegally accessing confidential loan files of several hundred college students on an agency database, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Charlotte M. Robinson, 46, of Dolton, Illinois, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to one count of unauthorized computer access. Robinson, who faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a U.S. $100,000 fine, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 22. Robinson worked as an employee in the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Division of the Department of Education, where her responsibilities included reviewing and processing student loan complaints within the FSA Office of the Ombudsman, the DOJ said in a press release. Between April 2006 and May 2009, Robinson logged into the agency’s National Student Loan Database System (NSLDS) and repeatedly viewed the confidential college loan records of several hundred people, including musicians, actors, family members and friends, the DOJ said. NSLDS includes borrowers’ names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, types of loans, loan balances and other information. Confidential records maintained in NSLDS are protected by the Privacy Act of 1974, and access by Department of Education employees is strictly limited to official government duties, the DOJ said. Robinson was aware that the records were confidential, according to her plea agreement. Her sole purpose for viewing the records was “idle curiosity,” the DOJ said…
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Student loan company: Data on 3.3M people stolen
A company that guarantees federal student loans said March 26 that personal data on about 3.3 million people nationwide have been stolen from its headquarters in Minnesota, reports the Associated Press. Educational Credit Management Corp. (ECMC) said the data included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth of borrowers, but no financial or bank account information. The data were on “portable media” that were stolen sometime last weekend, ECMC said in a statement. Company spokesman Paul Kelash wouldn’t specify what was taken but said there were no indications of any misuse of the data. The St. Paul-based nonprofit said it discovered the theft March 21 and immediately contacted law-enforcement officials, making the theft public when it received permission from authorities. ECMC said it has arranged with credit protection agency Experian to provide affected borrowers with free credit monitoring and protection services. Borrowers will be receiving letters from ECMC soon on how to sign up, gain access to fraud resolution representatives, and receive identity theft insurance coverage. ECMC is a contractor for the U.S. Department of Education to provide collection and document management services. It guarantees student loans through the Federal Family Education Loan program and provides support services for student loans that are in default or bankruptcy…
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