UNF Data Breach puts more students at risk for identity theft

University of North Florida officials are advising anyone who applied to enroll at the school between 2007 and 2010 to keep a close eye on their credit reports and banking information and have set up a telephone hotline and email address to answer any questions and provide updates on the breach investigation.
 
UNF is notifying more than 106,000 students and applicants that someone managed to hack into a sensitive file housed on one of the university's servers, exposing their social security numbers and other personal information.

In a security advisory posted on the Jacksonville, Fla.-based school's website, university officials said an authorized person outside of the U.S. managed to access a recruitment file sometime between Sept. 24 and Sept. 29.

The compromised data included all types of information provided by applicants to the university between 2007 and 2010, including social security numbers, names, dates of birth and, in some cases, student's SAT and ACT scores.

According to the UNF website:

A total of 106,884 people could have been impacted by this breach.  Of those:

    * 52,853 had their names and social security numbers compromised
    * 54,031 had their names and dates of birth compromised 

If you have additional questions concerning this breach;
visit the UNF site. You can also email your questions directly to databreach@unf.edu
or call (904) 620-2114

Excerpts from UNF site:

I recently moved and changed my e-mail address.  I'm not sure if UNF tried to notify me of the breach by letter and/or e-mail.  How do I check? 

If you would like UNF to check if your information was among the files compromised, please call (904) 620-2114.  If you are on the list of those impacted by the breach, you will need to know that the University Police Department General Offense Report number is 6000616.  The General Offense Report can be accessed here.

For those people impacted, UNF sent notices to the most recent contact information on file.  If UNF does not have your most recent contact information, there is a possibility you were impacted but did not receive word.  If you would like UNF to check if your information was among the files compromised, please call (904) 620-2114.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, students and faculty in colleges nationwide continue to discover they've been put at risk for identity theft when told their personal information may have been compromised in a university data breach. 

Whether the theft of information occurs at the hands of a professional hacker, security lapse, or brought about by a lost or stolen laptop, the end result is the same -their personal and private information has landed the hands of a stranger.  If you believe you may be affected by this data breach, or any of recently reported incidents of data loss, take some proactive steps now -to reduce your risk and impact of identity theft later.