Hard Drive with Student Loan borrowers Personal Info Went Missing

The federal government has called in the RCMP to investigate what could be one of the largest privacy lapses in Canadian history, after losing a non-encrypted external hard drive containing the personal information of 583,000 Canada Student Loan borrowers.

The lost hard drive contained the personal information — including names, social insurance numbers, dates of birth, contact information and loan balances — of more than half a million Canada Student Loan borrowers between 2000-06.

An employee with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada discovered the hard drive was missing in early November from an office in Gatineau, Que., but it took more than two months to investigate internally and ultimately report it publicly to Canadians on Friday.

Federal government loses hard drive with information on more than half a million people – o.canada.com