Hackers who stole almost 20,000 emails from the U.S. Democratic Party, and published them online, exposed the passport numbers of Americans in Canada who gave to the party in late April and May.
There has been speculation that the Russian government was behind the hack by WikiLeaks, a claim it denies.
Released on the eve of the party’s convention in Philadelphia, the content of the leak caused some embarrassment. Some emails suggested that party officials sought to undermine Sen. Bernie Sanders, a rival to the eventual nominee, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Longtime party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned after the emails were made public.
The data includes over 50 records of Americans abroad giving money to the party, including several in Canada. All had to provide their passport number, as well as home phone number, personal e-mail address, home address, occupation and employer, which are all now published on Wikileaks.
READ MORE: Democratic emails: All about the hack, the leak, the discord
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Complete credit card numbers aren’t included in the leaked data.
“I had no knowledge of any of this,” says Toronto-based theatre writer Jeniva Berger, whose U.S. passport data appears on Wikileaks. “I didn’t know there was anything the matter with our data.”
“That certainly is disturbing – you don’t want that kind of thing to be bandied around online.”
Berger, a U.S. citizen who votes in Illinois, donated to the Democrats in May.
“That’s bad news,” said Montreal resident Dorothy Piron, whose data was also leaked. “It doesn’t sound like a good thing, to have your information published.”
Global News asked the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa what Americans whose passport data is published online along with other identifying information should do about it, but haven’t heard back.
Passport numbers are one piece of information would-be identity thieves are looking for, the RCMP warns.
WATCH BELOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a simple but sharp answer on Tuesday, July 26, to a reporter’s question on the Democratic Party’s email leak scandal.
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