Hard drive containing information on 583,000 federal student loan borrowers goes missing

Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley announced Friday the loss of an external hard drive from an HRSDC office in Gatineau that contained personal information of 583,000 Canada Student Loans Program borrowers between 2000 and 2006. Missing since early November, the hard drive contained data such as student names, dates of birth, Social Insurance Numbers, addresses, and student loan balances from CSLP recipients. HRSDC is sending letters to affected individuals for whom it has current contact information, and has set up a toll-free number for people to verify if they are affected. Finley has directed HRSDC officials to take a number of immediate actions to ensure such an incident does not occur again, including mandatory training for all departmental employees regarding the proper handling of sensitive information. HRSDC Statement