For former and current faculty members of the University of Virginia, there has been a data breach on the school data base that exposes them to identity theft:

“School officials announced the security breaches yesterday, about a week after they discovered that, on 54 days between April 2005 and April 2007, someone broke into the records for more than 5,700 faculty members. Officials warned professors to carefully watch their financial accounts and have offered a year of free credit monitoring to everyone affected.”

link: U-Va. Officials Announce Database Breach

The data breach has two elements that are ideal for identity criminals. First, the data included Social Security numbers. And second, these are data from a well paid group who generally would have a good credit history. That makes using the stolen information that much easier.

If you know any former members of the University of Virginia, please let them know that they need to check to see if their personal information has been compromised.

Catherine Forsythe

Tags: university of virginia, faculty, data breach, privacy, security, identity theft, credit history, hackers, data base