A hacker has broken into computers at Sonoma State University in California and stolen personal information on about 61 000 students, according to the college.
An unidentified online marauder invaded seven staff computers at the college, situated in Sonoma County’s wine region, in July by exploiting ”a previously unknown weakness” in an operating system, university officials reported. The computer break-in was announced on Monday.
It was undetermined what information may have been plundered from the computers, which contained student names and Social Security numbers that could be used for potential fraud by identity thieves.
”Unfortunately, in our high-tech world, some find it a challenge to ‘break in’ to computers,” the college said in a statement.
”Sonoma uses state-of-the-art technology to monitor network activity and was able to discover this hacker very quickly.”
The stolen files contained data on students who applied or attended the university any time between 1995 and 2002.
Those whose privacy may have been compromised are being contacted and advised to ask credit reporting companies to place ”fraud alerts” on their bank accounts, the college said. – Sapa-AFP