Dive Brief:
- A data breach at the University of Central Florida allowed cyber attackers to access the personal information of current and former student athletes, as well as a diverse group of current and former employees.
- Campus Technology reports the second group was categorized as providing “other personal services,” and it includes student employees, graduate assistants, housing resident assistants, adjunct instructors, student government leaders, and faculty members.
- In a note to the campus community, President John C. Hitt said that social security numbers of approximately 63,000 people were accessed, but he did not say how, only promising a thorough review of online systems, policies, and training to identify potential areas of improvement.
Dive Insight:
Higher education institutions are particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks because of a relatively open network and vast amounts of personal data in one place. Research institutions routinely block up to tens of thousands of attacks per day. But sometimes attackers get through, and the cleanup is costly, both in dollars and in institutional trust.
College and university administrators can only do so much, but institutions are increasingly allocating larger budgets to IT — and, in some cases, creating new chief information security officer positions, acknowledging the work of the IT staff has gotten so broad as to need distinct departments.