University of Central Florida Responds to Data Breach
The University of Central Florida
is taking steps to remediate an intrusion into its computer network discovered in January. The
breach exposed personal information, including Social Security numbers,
of some current and former students and employees.
After the
breach was discovered, the university reported the incident to law
enforcement and launched an internal investigation with the support of
an incident response and digital forensics company. The investigation
has revealed that the breach resulted in unauthorized access to
personal information of two groups of people.
The first group
includes current student athletes, some former student athletes who
last played for UCF in 2014-15 and some student staff members of UCF
teams. Compromised personal information about these people includes
first and last names, Social Security numbers, student ID numbers,
sport, recruitment information and the number of credit hours taken and
in progress.
The second group includes current and former
employees categorized as "Other Personal Services," including
undergraduate student employees, graduate assistants, housing resident
assistants, adjunct faculty instructors, student government leaders and
some faculty members. Compromised personal information about these
people includes first and last names, Social Security numbers and UCF
employee identification numbers.
People affected by the incident
will receive notification letters during the week of February 8. UCF is
offering those individuals one year of free credit monitoring and
identity-protection services. The university has also set up a call
center and a special Web page with information about the breach.
The
university is working to improve user account and password security;
strengthen data security processes and protocols; and expand
information security education and training.
"Safeguarding your
personal information is of the utmost importance at UCF," wrote John C.
Hitt, president of UCF, in an e-mail to the campus community. "To ensure
our vigilance, I have called for a thorough review of our online
systems, policies and training to determine what improvements we can
make in light of this recent incident."
More information about the data breach and the steps UCF has taken in response can be found on the University of Central Florida's site.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].