The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
There's only a small chance, but residents who took out a Canada Student Loan between 2000 and 2006 may have had their personal information compromised. An external portable hard drive containing personal data on 583,000 Canada Student Loan borrowers was recently lost from a government office in Quebec. While there was no evidence of information being accessed or used for fraudulent purposes, the incident prompted the involvement of the RCMP. Search efforts continue. The portable hard drive included personal information on 583,000 Canada Student Loan borrowers who were clients from 2000 to 2006. The personal information included student names, Social Insurance numbers, dates of birth, contact information and loan balance of borrowers. Also lost was personal contact information of 250 Human Resources and Skills Development Canada employees. No banking or medical information was on the hard drive. Student loan borrowers from Quebec, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are not affected. Letters have been sent to affected individuals for whom current contact information as available. A toll-free number has been set-up at 1-866-885-1866 for individuals to verify if they are affected by this incident, and to ask additional questions. People with a hearing or speech impairment and using a teletypewriter (TTY) can call 1-800-263-5883.
