Those who tried to access the StudentAid BC website over the weekend found this image instead.

By Dylana Kneeshaw

WEBSITE BREACH

“It’s pretty scary”: TRU students concerned after possible hacking of student aid websites

May 3, 2021 | 4:27 PM

KAMLOOPS — Students from around B.C. are trying to determine if their personal and financial information was exposed to hackers over the weekend.

The StudentAid BC website was reportedly breached and has been temporarily shut down, along with the LearnLive BC website. The Ministry of Advanced Education says it is aware of the problem, and has opened an investigation into the matter.

However. university students are concerned their data was compromised, and the ordeal has added stress to those who depend on loans for tuition payments ahead of a new semester.

When Thompson Rivers University student Michelle Kozuchar checked the status of her enrollment on Friday (April 30) for the start of a new semester, everything looked good to go. But by Monday (May 3), she says it was a different story.

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“Then this morning I checked in to my tuition first at TRU and I saw that there was no payment received, and then I tried to access the student aid website, and then it just gave me a green screen with a bunch of hacker information.”

Kozuchar soon learned from social media and speaking with other students that she had been caught up in a potential breach incident on the Student Aid BC website.

“It’s pretty scary,” she explains, “And these were just TRU students (I spoke to) but I’m seeing people from from UVIC, UBC, the Lower Mainland, UNBC up north. There’s a lot of chaos right now.”

As of Monday afternoon, StudentAid BC had not confirmed whether student information was stolen, and the Ministry of Advanced Education says in an emailed statement it is ‘…not aware of any personal data being compromised’.

Given the level of personal and financial information stored on the server, Kozuchar says she would have preferred more direct communication, and instruction on how to handle the matter from the province, or StudentAid BC.

“So far the only communication from StudentAid BC has been a Twitter release,” she says. “It just said ‘multiple government sites have been affected’, and nothing about being hacked or the data breach. Just letting people know that their website was down, and that’s it.”

Pictured: The statement made on Twitter from StudentAid BC Monday morning regarding the website incident.

As Kozuchar enters her final term of study at TRU, she says she’s a little worried about what sort of impact the website hacking will have.

“Other than my information being taken and identity theft – I’m concerned about my tuition payments coming through,” she notes, “My loans that are supposed to carry me through the summer with things like rent and groceries. And specifically with tuition, I’m not sure if this will flag me as being a late student and will have extra fees tacked on to that.”

The Ministry of Advanced Education states that affected websites have been temporarily shut down to limit any further exposure, and an investigation is underway.