University of Missouri data theft
p2pnet.net news:- Names and Social Security numbers for 22,396 people associated with the University of Missouri have been hacked.
“Those affected, according to a university release, were employees of any campus within the UM System during calendar year 2004 who also were current or former students at the Columbia, Mo., campus,” says the St. Louis Business Journal, going oin:
“Unusual activity on a computer application was noticed May 3 by the school’s Information Technology staff. UM technicians confirmed the attack the following day and were able to disable the account that was being used by two overseas IP (Internet protocol) addresses to access the database from China and Australia.”
The hacks came through through a web page, “used to make queries about the status of trouble reports to the university’s computer help desk, which is based in Columbia,” says Associated Press. The information had been compiled for a report, but the resulting data had not been removed from the computer system.
The FBI is investigating, says the story.
UM is telling possible victims they should request a free initial fraud alert to be placed on their credit files by calling Equifax, Experian or TransUnion.
More information is available TOLL FREE FROM (866) 241-5619 between 8 am and 5 pm, Monday through Friday. The local number in Columbia is (573) 884-7222.
There’s also a computer security page with a Q&A section and ways to contact the major credit reporting agencies: doit.missouri.edu/computersecurity
Also See:
St. Louis Business Journal – UM computers hit by hackers, May 8, 2007
Associated Press – 22,000 Social Security numbers stolen at MU, May 9, 2007
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