The Educational Credit Management Corp. (ECMC), a guarantor of federal student loans, said that a theft has occurred from its headquarters involving portable media with personally identifiable information.

The stolen data contained information on approximately 3.3 million individuals and included names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers. No bank account or other financial account information was included in the data.

The theft involved data of ECMC guaranteed borrowers and occurred sometime during the weekend of March 20-21. ECMC discovered the theft on the afternoon of Sunday, March 21 and immediately contacted law enforcement officials. The corporation is cooperating fully with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies conducting the investigation.

ECMC has arranged with Experian national credit protection agency to provide affected individuals with a full suite of credit monitoring and protection services at no charge. Affected individuals will be receiving a written notification from ECMC as soon as possible. This letter will provide information about how they can sign up for free credit monitoring and notification, gain access to a dedicated team of fraud resolution representatives and be provided identity theft insurance coverage.

“We deeply regret that this incident occurred and the stress it has caused our borrowers and our partners and are doing everything we can to help protect our borrowers’ identity and personal information,” said Richard Boyle, president and CEO, ECMC Group Inc.

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