The security breach made the personal information of hundreds of students available on the school's website.
The school has taken the information off the website. But the students affected could still run into some problems. The information contained social security numbers of close to 1,500 students and it even listed some grade point averages. The school sent out a letter to those students, by email and certified mail, telling them what happened.
The University found out about the problem after a student used the website's search engine last week and found his information. School officials say this problem was caused by a mistake. They say a school employee put the internal documents on the website to e-mail other staff members the information, and then forgot to remove the information from the website.
Once the school found out about the problem they took the documents off and they have disabled the website's search engine, while they look for any more possible problems.
“We regret the situation happened. There’s no question about that. We apologize for all the students that were affected,” said Mitch Robinson, Austin Peay State University.
The school has sent information on what the students can do if they feel they may have become a victim of identity theft. One resource is the Federal Trade Commission website. They say at this time, only one person has notified them about a potential problem.
And just to be clear, this information was only available on the school's website, so someone using a search engine would not have found it that way.
The school says if you were notified and have any questions to give them a call.