[Dataloss] Hackers Access Financial Data At UMDNJ

[security curmudgeon]

Courtesy of ISN:


http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_099123340.html

Hackers Access Financial Data At UMDNJ 
Apr 9, 2006

(AP) NEWARK Computer hackers were able to gain access to the Social 
Security numbers and other confidential financial information of almost 
2,000 University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey students and 
alumni, university officials said.

UMDNJ kept the electronic break-in quiet while it investigated if the 
information -- including the tuition aid and loan information of about 700 
students and 1,150 alumni -- could be used by the hackers.

So far, officials believe the information was accessed, but initial 
reports suggest that no information was taken. However, computer experts 
are still investigating the incident.

"We know it was hacked into because there were some things on it that did 
not belong -- pranks and games," UMDNJ interim President Bruce C. Vladeck 
told The Sunday Star-Ledger.

The breech was discovered Feb. 24 by UMDNJ's office of Business Conduct, 
although officials did not disclose when the incident itself occurred.

Robert Johnson, interim dean of UMDNJ's New Jersey Medical School, sent 
letters to students on Friday notifying them they had been "exposed to an 
increased risk of identity theft."

This hacking incident came on the heels of another incident in February, 
in which hackers tried to get into the university's networks.

However, officials said that attempt was unsuccessful because the payroll 
computer the hackers were trying to break into contained only test data 
and not actual payroll information.