http://www.dailycardinal.com/news/40-computers-in-chemistry-department-hacked-possibly-exposing-private-info-1.832564#atBy Ryan Hebel
The Daily Cardinal
October 28, 2009
Forty computers in UW-Madison's Chemistry Department were hacked and
2,920 names and Social Security numbers were potentially exposed, mostly
during the past 18 months, according to an e-mail from UW-Madison
spokesperson John Lucas.
UW-Madison discovered the security breach Aug. 31 "through the use of
new monitoring hardware," but the identity of the hacker or hackers
remains unknown. Lucas said there is no evidence the infiltrations were
done locally or by a member of the UW-Madison community.
"We do know the machines were used as part of an underground
distribution network of music, movies, television shows and commercial
software," he said.
Lucas said there is no evidence that documents containing the Social
Security numbers' such as class rosters and grading documents—were
accessed, though UW-Madison still reported the breach to law enforcement
and credit reporting agencies.
An Oct. 12 letter to the affected individuals, signed by Chemistry Chair
Robert Hamers and Chief Information Officer Ron Kraemer, noted that
since the breach, "departmental controlled/owned computers have been
scanned to locate and remove or encrypt personal data, network
monitoring has been increased, a central update service has been
installed and anti-virus activity messages have been redirected to a
central location for monitoring."
[...]
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