Oct 28, 2026
When Manitoba resident Andrew Rivard reported illegal cigarette sales in his neighbourhood in 2025, he trusted Crime Stoppers to keep his identity private. He’d included his full name.
However, according to a CBC investigation published on Oct. 21, his report was among the more than 1.5 million Canadian Crime Stoppers tips exposed in a data breach. The records contained enough personal information for CBC to contact more than a dozen tipsters.
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“It’s very scary, to be honest,” Rivard told CBC. He fears criminals could use his address and phone number to retaliate.
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The fallout has since widened. As of Oct. 26, at least 11 Crime Stoppers programs had paused their anonymous tip intake and 24 police units had suspended their partnerships, according to a CBC tally. On Oct. 27, the Ontario Provincial Police said it is also pausing its promotion of Crime Stoppers while the impact of the breach is assessed.
On Oct. 27, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), the federal watchdog that oversees how businesses handle personal information, announced it is investigating Navigate360, the U.S. company that owns the hacked tip platform. The probe will examine whether the security safeguards the company had in place at the time of the breach complied with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Canada’s federal private-sector privacy law.
What happened
In March 2026, hackers stole data from P3 Global Intel, a tip-management platform owned by Navigate360. Crime Stoppers operates independently of police and uses the platform to manage submissions. The hack was reported publicly at the time, but how badly Canadian tipsters were affected didn’t become clear until CBC’s investigation.
Straight Arrow News reported that the broader breach exposed more than 8.3 million records. CBC examined the Canadian portion, covering submissions over the span of 25 years.
More than 850,000 Canadian tips contained personally identifiable information. Addresses and phone numbers appeared most frequently, alongside personal emails, licence plates and banking information related to cash rewards.
That does not mean 850,000 tipsters were identified. The information also concerned people named in allegations, Crime Stoppers staff and police. CBC could not always determine whose details appeared.
In more than 4,300 reports, tipsters appeared to introduce themselves by their full name. CBC could not verify every name, but found hundreds of staff warnings that someone had identified themselves or been exposed, while identifying details remained unredacted.
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Who could face retaliation?
People who reported someone they know or provided information about violent crime could face particular risks if their submissions reveal their identities.
CBC found tips involving alleged murder, terrorism and organized crime. About one in three concerned drugs or drug trafficking. Staff records linked nearly 49,000 tips to cases cleared through arrests or criminal charges.
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One woman, whose identity CBC withheld, had provided information about a loved one’s murder. Learning about the breach renewed her fears that someone could hurt her family.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) told CBC that the exposure could jeopardize the safety of tipsters, people identified in tips as well as police officers. However, it said it had received no reports of threats resulting from the breach.
It’s unclear who else may have the stolen data. Someone claiming to speak for the hackers told CBC the group briefly tried to sell the data but hadn’t shared it publicly. Cybersecurity experts warned that the claim shouldn’t be taken at face value.
Exposed details could help fraudsters gain trust
Scammers could use details from a real tip to gain someone’s trust. University of Guelph cybersecurity professor Ali Dehghantanha told CBC that referring to a tip someone previously submitted could make them more willing to share additional information.
Cybersecurity expert Ben Coon, who also reviewed limited samples for CBC, warned that the data could support financial fraud and extortion.
How Navigate360 and Crime Stoppers have responded
In an Oct. 23 statement, Navigate360 publicly acknowledged the breach for the first time, seven months after the hack was first reported. The company said an unauthorized third party accessed one of its systems and copied data between Nov. 21, 2025, and March 5, 2026. It said names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses may have been affected, but that it has found no evidence the information has been used for fraud or identity theft. The company did not respond to CBC’s repeated requests for comment.
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The Canadian Crime Stoppers Association (CCSA), the national non-profit that represents local Crime Stoppers programs, told CBC that notifying people could itself create safety risks because the available information did not distinguish tipsters from others named in records.
CBC later reported that 49 of the 64 affected chapters had not yet publicly acknowledged the breach. An internal association memo directed chapters to refer media inquiries to the national organization.
Money.ca reached out to the CCSA for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
What to do if you submitted a tip
Before you submit another tip, check your local Crime Stoppers chapter’s website for updates. Some programs are still operating, while others have stopped accepting tips. CBC reported that all five Saskatchewan programs had paused intake, while New Brunswick Crime Stoppers planned to continue.
If you’re worried about information you previously shared, the RCMP recommends contacting your local chapter. If you decide to speak directly with police, find out how they will protect your identity before sharing sensitive details. For example, Halton police caution their reporting channels do not offer the same anonymity as Crime Stoppers.
Be wary of anyone who contacts you asking for your tip number or password. Toronto Crime Stoppers says it will never contact you first to ask for those details. If you’re in immediate danger, call 911.
If you think your financial information was exposed, check your bank account statements and credit reports for unfamiliar activity, and report any unauthorized transactions to your financial institution immediately. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, the federal agency responsible for protecting financial consumers, also recommends contacting Equifax and TransUnion to ask about placing fraud alerts on your credit files.
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Colin Graves is a Winnipeg-based financial writer and editor whose work has been featured in publications such as Time, MoneySense, MapleMoney, Retire Happy, The College Investor, and more. Before becoming a full-time writer, Colin was a bank manager for over 15 years.
