Data Breach Alert: Harvard hack exposed more data than initially thought

Posted by Joe on March 12th, 2008

March 13, 2008 Update: Cnet is reporting that a copy of the Harvard student and applicant data that was stored on a hacked server has been posted on peer-to-peer file sharing network, BitTorent. This means that millions of individuals now have direct access to the breached data.

A February 2008 data breach of information may have been more extensive than originally thought according to a statement today by Harvard University officials. Approximately 10,000 personal records of current students and applicants, including about 6,600 social security numbers and 500 Harvard student ids, were compromised when a hacker gained unauthorized access to a web server used by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Harvard officials initially believed that no personal information had been put at risk but further investigation failed to confirm that student identities were not at a potential risk.

"We're not going to be able to rule out that the individuals may have gotten access to this other information," said Daniel D. Moriarty, the University's chief information officer. "We've basically decided to proceed as a conservative measure with notifying the individuals who have been impacted and lining up the [identity theft] services for those individuals."

Those individuals impacted by the breach will be provide credit report monitoring and other preventative services on behalf of the university.