The previous privacy commissioner, Daniel Therrien, announced a formal investigation into the breach at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in November of last year. CBC News first reported the data breach on October 26, 2021. The names of several hundred vulnerable Afghans seeking refuge from the Taliban were leaked in emails accidentally sent by IRCC. The Afghans in question fear reprisals from the Taliban. Some are in hiding because of past roles in the Afghan government, armed forces or judiciary, or as human rights activists. One email seen by CBC News contained 200 names. IRCC apologized to those affected by the “reply-all” bug. A similar but smaller data breach involving the UK Ministry of Defense last month received a stronger response – a ministerial apology to the UK House of Commons and a ministerial inquiry. In his letter to the privacy commissioner, Conservative immigration critic Jasraj Singh Hallan asked why it was taking so long for the report to appear. He wrote that Dufresne’s office “informed mine that the report on this matter was expected to be finalized and released in late June. We were then informed that the report was sent for review by senior management in July.”
“Dragging His Heels”
Hallan called on the commissioner to immediately release the results of the investigation. A spokesperson for the privacy commissioner told CBC News that the investigation “remains ongoing.” “We expect the investigation to be completed in the coming months,” Vito Piliezzi said. “The privacy commissioner is taking too long to release the IRCC report leaking Afghan refugee data,” Hallan told CBC News. “This is the moment Afghans fleeing the Taliban don’t have.” “This is in no way a knock on the (Privacy Commissioner) or public servants,” he said, adding that he knows their job is difficult and they are under pressure. “I understand that investigations can take time, but Canadians deserve to know if the government is deliberately delaying providing the required information to the commissioner to delay the report.”
“Maybe the next target is my family”
The brother of a woman whose identity and photo were leaked in the data breach told CBC News the danger isn’t over for those affected — since the Taliban could, at any time, get hold of a computer or cellphone that still contains data for email exchange. hundreds of Afghans apply for asylum in Canada. “After this data breach, it is a moral responsibility to provide them with a clear understanding and a clear answer as to why this happened and what the measures are to protect these people living in Afghanistan, to protect them from the backlash of Taliban in it. data breach,” he said. (Because he fears Taliban reprisals against his family, CBC News is not naming him.) Outside Kabul International Airport, an Afghan baby is pushed toward U.S. soldiers over a barbed-wire wall in a video captured by Omar Haidari on Aug. 19, 2021. (Omar Haidari/The Associated Press) He lives in Canada, while his sister remains in Afghanistan with her children. Her husband was an Afghan Army officer who was killed by the Taliban. She said knowing her information was out there on an unknown number of devices was a constant source of anxiety for her. “After every arrest or every murder, she’s afraid they might have her information,” he said. “Maybe the next target is my family, maybe next time they’ll come at me. So there’s a very negative psychological impact.”
The UK survey was conducted over eight weeks
He said he hoped things would clear up sooner. “I thought that after a week, or at least a month, these people can get an answer from this committee and from IRCC. This delay, this silence, is something I did not expect.” The UK Ministry of Defense’s investigation into the data breach in Afghanistan lasted eight weeks. This led to the redeployment of staff and recommended changes in training procedures. Canada’s investigation into the data breach has already lasted more than nine months. Hallan said it was important to fix the problems that led to the leak before other vulnerable groups were affected by something similar. “We have another crisis now in Ukraine and we want to make sure that this kind of data breach doesn’t happen again,” he said. “We want to make sure that our immigration system is secure, given all the recent cyber attacks that are happening around the world, and that this doesn’t happen to vulnerable Afghans or people from Ukraine or people from any other country.”
