Many students are outraged with the recently reported intrusion into a computer server at the University of Florida College of Dentistry. Over 344,000 records are at risk due to the unauthorized access to their birth date, social security number, name and address. Although the breach was discovered back on October 3rd, the incident is just recently being reported.

At this time, there is no evidence to that the data accessed is being used, however, letters of caution are being mailed to all that have an address on file with the University. This affects patient records that date all the way back to the year 1990. There are over 8,000 patients who do not have current contact information on file with the University, so they can call a hotline established to answer inquiries in regard to this incident. Those who have questions can call: 866-783-5883.

The data breach is being investigated and the server that was accessed has been disconnected from the internet to cut off access to the intruder. It has also been rebuilt to provide better security.

Comments from students affected have begun to pour in. Many are extremely disappointed and upset that the intruder was able to gain access to their private information at all. Those who have already received their letters are quoted as saying “they are treating me like this is my fault. …I have to pay for credit checks and credit freezes.”

While it is true that once you provide your personal information to a university, it should be kept private, the fact is that many colleges and universities do not have the security measures in place needed to prevent these type of data breaches from taking place.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Data Breach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.