Hackers access personal records at University of Indianapolis
Intruders accessed the confidential data of 11,000 students, faculty and staff at the University of Indianapolis.
What type of personal information? Social Security numbers, among other information.
What happened? The breach was discovered Sept. 18, 10 days after the attack. The hackers compromised information that was at least two years old, when the university was still collecting Social Security numbers as identifiers.
What was the response? Victims were notified by email or standard mail and will be offered one year of free credit monitoring.
Details: The hack appears to have originated outside the United States as investigators discovered foreign language embedded in the programming code.
Quote: “Our investigation leaves no doubt that this was a professional job by hackers from outside, and it was well beyond our control.” - University President Beverley Pitts.
Source: chicagotribune.com, Associated Press, “Hacker compromises data on 11,000 at U. of Indy,” Sept. 30.
Campus laptop theft is becoming a huge issue. With more than 30,000 students at some colleges, it’s no wonder that sensitive data is available to hackers. And with students and faculty to worry about, it’s difficult to protect everyone’s information. Check out my blog post on RIT… something similar happened there. http://blog.mylaptopgps.com/2008/09/05/campus-laptop-theft-at-large/ Maybe we should start taking security measures into our own hands, eh?
” … and it was well beyond our control.”
Ah, no President Pitts. May I suggest the term ‘Information Security’. Go ahead. You can even find it with Google.