Students enrolled in the SELF Loan program may have had their confidential information accessed by "unauthorized people" due to an error on the Office of Higher Edcuation's website, according to a letter from OHE will be sent to potentially affected students. 

The coding error, discovered September 2, was on the administrative log on page and may have led to a "possible unauthorized access of your private information," a letter from OHE Commissioner Larry Pogemiller to students said. 

The site contained data including the student's full name, institution, social security number and email address.

The letter advised all potentially affected students to take precautionary measures like monitoring personal credit reports. 

Sandy Connolly, the director of communications for OHE said a student discovered the glitch and immediately reported it to OHE.

"We're pretty confident that this was a one-time isolated event with no ill intent at all," Connolly said. "This kid recognizedthat he saw something he shouldn't see and contacted the right people."

Connolly said OHE is reviewing data on who accessed the information and so far, 97 percent of the site's users were authorized to seee the information. She said OHE suspects the remaining percent of people were authorized users working remotely, but the office is still reviewing the information to determine which students they need to send letters to next week.