NEWARK, Del. — Hackers have launched a cyber attack on a University of Delaware computer system, which has exposed as many as 72,000 people to identity theft.
School officials noticed the breach on July 22, five days after hackers exploited a security flaw in the university’s Web-based software. The hackers stole names, addresses, Social Security numbers and university identification numbers of current and past employees, including student workers, USA Today reports.
It is unclear if the suspects were able to copy other sensitive records from the software, nor did officials mention how far back the stolen employee records date.
University officials informed the campus community of the breach through E-mail; however, many of the messages went to recipients’ spam folders, prompting them to believe the E-mails were fraudulent.
The breach could cost the university between $13 million to $19 million to correct the error.
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