University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus was the target. Malicious code was discovered on a document management database server. The university contacted law enforcement and after a month-long investigation realized that the database on the system contained over 75,000 records that included social security numbers for both students and employees.
Nobody is sure how long the malware was running on the server, but it was shutdown once the breach was found. It’s suspected that the software was being used to identify cutting edge research that the school is working on, but that has yet to be confirmed. It’s also good to know that while students may have had their identity stolen, the database contained no “academic information such as student grades,” so at least the attackers won’t be able to identify whether students passed their criminology courses.
Nobody is sure how long the malware was running on the server, but it was shutdown once the breach was found. It’s suspected that the software was being used to identify cutting edge research that the school is working on, but that has yet to be confirmed. It’s also good to know that while students may have had their identity stolen, the database contained no “academic information such as student grades,” so at least the attackers won’t be able to identify whether students passed their criminology courses.