B.C. post-secondary application portal affected by data breach

Detailed summary

In a Thursday update, EducationPlannerBC says that, on Nov. 3, it identified a "cybersecurity incident affecting its application system."

The application portal for public post-secondary institutions in British Columbia has been temporarily offline for over a week following a data breach.

In a Thursday update, EducationPlannerBC says that, on Nov. 3, it identified a "cybersecurity incident affecting its application system."

It confirmed "an unauthorized actor gained access to a limited amount of applicant data including applicant names, contact details and gender," but said information such as social insurance numbers, banking or financial information were not accessed.

The update went on to say EducationPlannerBC "recognizes that being offline may cause concern for applicants with upcoming program deadlines and is working closely with its post-secondary institutional partners to minimize impacts on applicants."

In a statement, the University of British Columbia says it's committed to ensuring no student application is adversely affected by the outage.

Simon Fraser University says its applications for the 2027 fall term close at the end of January, and there are no plans to extend application deadlines.

News of the data breach comes after a cyberattack that affected the Burnaby School District.

A CBC News investigation found that a Russian ransomware group posted screenshots on the dark web from what appears to be a database stolen from the Burnaby School District.

Russian cybercrime syndicate allegedly behind hack of Burnaby School District

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