A B.C. government employee under investigation for an alleged privacy breach is accused of e-mailing personal data about government clients to an American border guard in Washington state.
Government sources confirmed Friday that the employee, who works from the Lower Mainland for the Ministry of Housing and Social Assistance, allegedly used her government e-mail to send confidential data to the personal e-mail account of the border guard. She also is accused of copying the data to her own personal e-mail account during the transactions, said sources.
Exactly what information was sent, and for what purpose the border guard was using it, remains the focus of a government investigation launched last month, and made public by Victoria's Times Colonist Friday. The investigation will also look at the employee's e-mail history to determine if other privacy breaches occurred.
It's believed the B.C. civil servant and border guard had some sort of personal relationship, sources said. Government officials discovered the breach after they began investigating the civil servant's misuse of government Internet and phone services in September.
The province's housing ministry stockpiles personal information for thousands of British Columbians who apply for income and disability assistance, employment training and rental assistance. At least three B.C. residents have been personally notified that their private information was breached, said Ben Stewart, minister of citizens' services and privacy, during an interview Friday.
The type of information was unlikely to lead to financial fraud, but nonetheless was not supposed to be shared with anyone outside the government, Stewart said.
The employee has been suspended, pending a government investigation, which is supposed to be completed by Jan. 29.
The U.S. government created the Department of Homeland Security after the 9/ 11 terrorist attacks, and the mammoth organization has grown to encompass border security, immigration enforcement, terrorism investigations and disaster recovery assistance. The department has more than 230,000 employees and an annual budget in excess of $50 billion. A spokesperson for the department could not be reached for comment Friday.
