Social Security numbers of 2, 920 people at UW-Madison may have been exposed

[kirniki <kirniki () gmail com>]

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/university/article_9e177bfa-c28b-11de-b6f5-001cc4c03286.html

Forty computers in the UW-Madison Department of Chemistry were hacked over
the course of roughly 18 months, possibly exposing the names and Social
Security numbers of 2,920 people on campus.

UW-Madison authorities sent a letter Oct. 12 to faculty, staff and students
who were affected, apologizing for the security breach and promising that
new security tools are being put in place.

The computers were used as part of an underground network distributing
music, movies, television shows and commercial software.

[..]

University officials learned of the breach on Aug. 31. During the course of
an investigation, they found that the computers were hacked mostly over the
past 18 months, but the earliest incident happened in December 2001,
according to the letter.

Some of the compromised computers contained the nearly 3,000 names and
Social Security numbers, which were used for official university business.

[..]

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