WHITEHORSE FALLOUT FROM COMPUTER THEFTbodyWe’re very sorry that that happened’
by Jason Small


Personal information about 150 to 200 Yukoners on probation is now out in the public and the territorial government doesn’t know where it has gone.
Noreen McGowan, an assistant deputy minister with the Department of Justice, said Wednesday two of the computers stolen by thieves from an office last Sunday night contained files on up to 200 adults on probation.
The files were on two laptops in the probation offices.
According to McGowan, personal information is kept usually just on the department’s network and not the hard drives of the computers.
However, files are transferred to laptop computers when probation staff go outside of Whitehorse to circuit courts or visit the communities.
Standard practice is to transfer the information back to the network when the staff returns to Whitehorse, McGowan told an afternoon news conference.
However, the two laptops had not been emptied before Sunday.
“We’re still investigating why the information was not taken back off of the laptops immediately,” said McGowan.
Department staff will make a list of the information on those files and write to the people whose personal data may have been stolen from the government office.
“We’d tell them that we’re very sorry that that happened,” said McGowan.
Sharon Hickey, the department’s director of community and correctional services, said most of the information in those files has been put together by the person on probation along with the staff.
The information would include criminal history, offender data and pre-sentence reports.
“Most of the information was in the public domain,” said Hickey.
However, some information the adult on probation may not have seen before could also be on the files. That type of data include concerns of the victims.
Bill Craik, the deputy minister of Justice, doesn’t believe the person who stole the computers was after the data because if they tried to make them public, the theft could be traced back to them.
“We do not anticipate this is a theft of information,” said Craik, who had to admit he did not know that for sure and was making an educated guess.
If the thieves were after information, said Craik, it would have been easier to steal the paper copies of the data.
McGowan confirmed that no paper files had been stolen from the building. She said the files in the two laptops were the only ones stolen.
According to McGowan, more than 10 computers were stolen from the office at the Prospector building on the southwest corner of Jarvis Street and Third Avenue.
According to McGowan, a computer was stolen from the victim services area on the first floor, but there was no “personal” information on that computer.
“They weren’t able to get into the secure areas of the first floor that housed the offices and the file storage for the victim services/family violence prevention unit,” said McGowan.
She said the burglars then moved up to the second floor, where adult probation, correction, chief coroner and crime prevention offices are found.
From this area, around five black, Dell computers and five laptops were taken.
Hickey estimated about $27,000-worth of computers were stolen. However, the department is still tallying the total cost of what was purloined from its office.
Other equipment that was stolen included some palm pilots, a video camera, two digital projectors and digital cameras.
To get this equipment, according to Hickey, the thieves searched cupboards in the offices and in some cases broke them open.
The department is not worried about information on the other computers which were taken.
McGowan said Justice doesn’t keep “departmental data” and e-mails on the individual hard drives of staff computers.
A computer used as a server was also stolen from the offices that allows the computers in the building to connect with the rest of the government computers. This computer contained passwords.
As a precaution, all government passwords were changed on Monday.
McGowan said there has been no unusual computer activity since the theft.
It appeared the bandits entered the building on the main floor, she said, but there was no detail about how they entered.
The theft took place between 8:30 and midnight last Sunday evening, according to Hickey.
Craik estimated it would have taken the thieves one to 1 1/2 hours to finish the job and that they just likely missed being detected by the security guard.
The guard contacted the RCMP after stopping at the building on his rounds at around midnight.
Hickey doesn’t believe the thieves were still in the building when the guard arrived there.
McGowan said the department will look at its security procedures.
Prior to this week, the building was monitored by the government’s security staff who included the facility, along with others like the Andrew Philipsen Law Centre, on their rounds.
“There is no specific, security alarm system,” said McGowan.
Hickey said there is security in the building, with various doors to different sections locked and only opened with specific codes.
“You will not stop anybody who’s absolutely determined,” she said.
McGowan went into the office on the day after the break-in and saw the havoc the intruders had wrought.
“It was messy. It was clear somebody had broken in. Certainly, desks were in a bit of disarray. It looked, primarily, as if things were moved around so they could get behind the computers and unplugged them.”
Police are still investigating the case.