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University reports data hack

Matt Hines CNET News

Published: 21 Mar 2005 09:35 GMT

California State University, Chico, has informed more than 59,000 people that their personal information may have been compromised in an attack on the school's servers earlier this week. Stored on the hacked system were the records of a wide range of people with various ties to the university, including current, former and prospective students, as well as current and former faculty and staff. The school said the vast majority of the records involved belonged to students who began attending its classes within the past five years.

The school contends that there is no evidence that hackers targeted the server with the intent of stealing the personal data, which included names and Social Security numbers, but it has already informed individuals affected by the incident via email and postal mail. The university has pledged to discontinue the use of Social Security numbers in its student and employee identification systems in the future.