Back in November, we found reports circulating about a data breach at the University of Florida affecting over 300,000 records at the College of Dentistry. We are now seeing yet another breach involving a little over 97,000 people. This breach is part of a wave of intrusions reported by the University over the past year or so and names and social security numbers are involved. It is unknown whether the hacker accessed this personal data or not, but the system was compromised.

The university has sent out notification letters to most of those who were affected and have contact information on file with them. This includes students, faculty and staff. Addresses for around 5,000 were not found. Those affected were registered with the Grove system which stores course materials and class records, as well as a free email service. It was shut down to be re-done in a different form, however, anyone who has used this system since 1996 could be at risk. The breach was discovered back on January 14th while the computer system was being reviewed.

Those who are concerned and would like to know more can call 877-657-9133 which is UF’s Privacy Office or they can visit the office website at: privacy.ufl.edu. If you have used the Grove system since 1996 and have not received a letter, you can view the letter on the office website previously listed.

We urge our readers to take advantage of LifeLock’s identity theft protection discount offer. Use code Defense and receive a special rate. Many services are included, view LifeLock.com for details.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 8:36 am 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.