Data Breach Alert: Thousands of California students at risk for identity theft

Posted by Joe on April 7th, 2008

About 7,000 current and former students at the University of California at Irvine are at risk for identity theft from criminals that have already used stolen data to file fake tax returns according to University Police.

There have been 93 UCI students that have reported being notified that a tax return has already been filed in their name when they attempt to file their 2007 tax returns. All 93 impacted individuals were graduate students at UCI.

University officials don't know who stole the information or how at this point. UCI Police Chief Paul Henisey said:

"For the last two weeks, we have been scouring all of our databases and computer systems, but we have not found any leak here".

It is believed that these incidents at UCI may be related to a series of related crimes at universities nationwide that is currently being investigated by the IRS. Henisey confirmed that the IRS was currently investigating the UCI incidents and that the perpetrators are believed to be based outside California.

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Learn more about the UC Irvine data breach at the Orange County Register.