Hackers Break into U-M Server

A computer hacker managed to access the University of Michigan's server containing personal information of 5,000 people attached to the university's Department of Education. The school has mailed notification letters to all the affiliated people.

There were two databases on the server of U-M School of Education - one related to the state board carrying on education and the other to the certification records of teachers.

There is a possibility that the databases included names, birth dates, addresses and SSN (Social Security Numbers). However, they did not contain financial information like credit card numbers, said Kelly Cunningham, a spokeswoman for U-M. Mlive published this in news on July 22, 2007.

Kelly further said that the attacks apparently did not target for personal information as per a probe by the university's IT officials.

According to U-M officials, the attacker was probably using the server to hack other computers. The officials came to know about the problem on July 3, 2007 when they found the server was behaving unusually. The School of Education took the server offline and saved the data loss.

Similar hacking of database occurred in the University of Missouri in May 2007. The security breach affected nearly 9,000 prevailing UM employees and personnel connected to all the four campuses set up in 2004. The hacker gained access to the database of a system in UM and committed identity theft. The stolen information consisted of names and SSN of 22,000 or more current and ex-employees of the system.

Another hack attack happened recently in July 2007 in the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. In that, hackers broke into personal accounts of 1,100 students. They stole information on names, SSN and birth dates of applicants to the current session 2007-08.

Hack attacks of these types are commonplace in schools and universities and they happen quite easily. This is because the IT staff does not give much importance to the security of the institution's databases related to employees and students as they mostly consist of insignificant information like names and addresses. However, they should remember that the victims in the end are the students and employees.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 8/2/2007