Dive Brief:
- The University of Maryland revealed Thursday that "a sophisticated computer security attack" compromised records containing personal information for 309,079 students, staff, and faculty.
- The records include social security numbers, birth dates, and school ID numbers for people at the College Park and Shady Grove campuses, and date as far back as 1998.
- The university is providing a year of free credit monitoring to those affected and says that no financial, medical, or contact information was included in the compromised data.
Dive Insight:
University records have increasingly become the target of hackers in recent years, and this is among the most extensive we've seen. Such incidents should serve as reminders to CIOs and other tech professionals that there could always be more work to be done when it comes to protecting the data of those on campus, as hackers are ever adapting to the latest walls placed between them and that information. As such, preventing such an incident isn't an easy task, but pulling out any available stops can always help minimize the impact if an attack does occur.