If you’re already defaulting on your student loan, you might be praying that the state agency that manages it would somehow just lose the promissory note, thereby letting you off the hook.
Florida students got only half of what they wished for, and a whole lot of something they never wanted.
The Florida Department of Education’s Office of Student Financial Assistance is sending letters this week to 475 of the borrowers notifying them of a data breach that occurred in late May. A total of 1,186 promissory notes were lost.
Unfortunately for the borrowers, DOE had copies of the promissory notes. Even more unfortunate: the students are now at a high risk of becoming identity theft victims because the lost files contain names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birth dates and personal references.
The DOE office somehow lost the promissory notes during the week of May 25. Jose Blas Lorenzo Jr, director of policy and regulatory compliance for the OFSA, was notified June 2. He waited until June 23 to notify the OSFA bureau chief, Levi Hughes, who, in turn, notified the DOE inspector general, who started an internal inquiry. But no one ever notified any law enforcement agencies or the borrowers until this week.
Students who were sent the OSFA notification letter were advised to place fraud alerts on their credit files, but weren’t offered any identity theft protection services.
No one from DOE is commenting on why there was such a long delay in notifying the borrowers.
Tags: Data breach, DOE, Florida Department of Education, Identity Theft, LifeLock promo code, Office of Student Financial Assistance, OSFA, promissory notes
