Student loan data stolen: 3.3 million ex-college students look forward to giant headache


Thanks, Web site!

It was only a few days ago that I mentioned that, you know, your data is never secure. So, this story isn’t surprising at all. It turns out that the records of more than 3.3 million student loans were stolen a few days ago. Data stolen includes names, Social Security numbers, and credit card numbers. Awesome.

This time around, the theft wasn’t the result of phishing or other “hi-tech” method—nope, it was good ol’ fashioned physical theft.

The data was stored on a portable drive. Said drive was stolen.

The company implicated in this mess is Educational Credit Masters Corporation. Not sure if those guys handle my student loans—all my private ones go through Citibank—but if my data is stolen, great. I look forward to months, if not years, of trying to sort all that mess out. Or maybe I’ll just use it as an opportunity to escape to South America, to freedom.

So again, folks: your data is never, ever safe. Let’s not pretend any differently.