College notifies current students and employees of privacy incident and offers credit monitoring

On Monday, January 9, Okanagan College responded to an incident in which an unauthorized entity gained access to certain Okanagan College technology systems.

As soon as the intrusion was detected, the College took steps to contain the incident and engaged cyber-security experts to assist with the response and investigation.

In the course of the investigation, it has been determined that certain information belonging to current students and employees may have been subject to risk as result of the incident. The College has notified the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia and is in the process of notifying students and staff.

Current students will receive instructions from the College and/or can find more information on the OC website, including instructions for obtaining access to credit monitoring services that are being provided by the College free of charge. Current staff will receive instructions directly from the College by email.

The investigation is ongoing. Should the investigation determine that information pertaining to other individuals may have been impacted by the incident, we will notify those individuals accordingly.  

While no organization can be entirely immune to these types of attacks, the College takes privacy seriously and will continue to seek opportunities to further strengthen its security infrastructure.

There are currently approximately 17,000 students and 1,100 employees at Okanagan College. For more information about the Cyber-Incident at Okanagan College, including the student notification letter and FAQs click here.