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University computer breach really wasn't

Friday, May 2, 2008

Some 9,000 students and 500 staff at the University of Colorado at Boulder recently were notified that their personal data housed on one of the university’s computers may have been breached. A week later, the university declared it a false alarm. The problem was caused by an interaction between two incompatible software programs that mimicked behavior consistent with a malicious file, says the university’s IT department.

When this behavior was first discovered, the university erred on the side of caution and notified the students and staff involved who then must have spent an anxious week or so wondering if their personal identity information, such as their Social Security numbers, were going to show up in the hands of ID thieves.

The university intends to beef up its security procedures including cleaning up computers that still may contain sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers. Read more here[end] 

More than 4,000 University of Maine students’ personal information may have been compromised in a recent server breach, according to Seacoast Online.

Accessed was a pair of files servers on the university’s Orno campus, containing names and Social Security numbers, as well as confidential clinical records dating back to 2002. Officials reported that the servers contained information about 4,585 students who have sought mental health services from the campus counseling center.

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The University of Texas at Arlington was recently victimized by an outside computer attack, which resulted in unauthorized access to medical files belonging to nearly 30,000 faculty, staff and students, according to a local news report.

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Penn State University has yet again been victimized with another data breach situation resulting in the possible compromise of 15,800 student’s personal information, according to eSecurity Planet.

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An UConn computer with the names and Social Security Numbers of more than 10,000 university applicants was stolen, according to a local news report.

The computer, stolen from an IT storage cabinet at university’s West Hartford campus, had applicant files ranging from 2004 through July 30. UConn officials are still investigating the theft, which was discovered on Aug. 3.

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The College Center for Library Automation in Tallahassee sent out notices about a software upgrade that may have left about 30,000 students, faculty and staff Social Security numbers and other private data vulnerable for theft, according to a local news article.

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University of Hawaii officials made an announcement that a hacker was able to breach the security of a parking office server, which contained the personal information of some 53,000 people, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

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