It is a truth anecdotally acknowledged that computer systems are compromised and sensitive data stolen more often than many would like to admit, so when an organization is forthright enough to throw up its hands and admit it was cracked, it’s worth noting.
UT’s VP of IT Daniel Updegrove said in a statement that the college discovered that a security weakness in an administrative data reporting system was exploited late Sunday. The US Secret Service, Attorney’s Office and other law enforcement are now involved.
Updegrove said that the hackers fed millions of randomly generated social security numbers into the system, and collected the email addresses and phone numbers, among other details, of users when there was a match.
Updegrove did not explain how the hacker was able to access the database in the first place, or whether the database was commercial off-the-shelf software or a custom job.
Source: Computerwire
