University of Maryland data breach compromises over 300,000 records
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A University of Maryland database containing the names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and university identification numbers of 309,079 faculty, staff, students and affiliated personnel who have been associated with the institution since 1998 has been breached, the university said.
The database maintained by the university's information technology division was breached Wednesday, said Wallace D. Loh, president of the College Park, Md.-based university in a letter Thursday.
The breach involves those who have been associated with the university's College Park and Shady Grove, Md., campuses who have been issued a university identification.
No other data, including financial, academic, health or contact information, was breached, Mr. Loh said in the letter.
“With the assistance of experts, we are handling this matter with an abundance of caution and diligence. Appropriate state and federal law enforcement authorities are currently investigating this criminal incident. Computer forensic investigators are examining the breached files and logs to determine how our sophisticated, multi-layered security defenses were bypassed. Further, we are initiating steps to ensure there is no repeat of this breach,” Mr. Loh said in the letter.
In a follow-up letter Friday, Brian D. Voss, vice president of the university's information technology division, said the university's police department is working with the U.S. Secret Service on the matter.
In addition, Mr. Voss said, the university is working with Mitre Corp., a systems engineering company based in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va., that specializes in cyber security, to provide additional forensic analysis on how the attack happened and to prevent additional attacks in the future.
