Three months after the computer intrusion, The University of South Carolina has started notifying 34,000 people with ties to its College of Education.
The names, addresses and social security numbers of 34,000 researchers, members of the staff, and students from the University of South Carolina have become exposed after hackers from overseas breached the institution’s systems. The records they might have obtained date as far back as 2005.
USC is unclear when the breach, which emanated from overseas, occurred. The hacking was discovered by an alert on June 6, the school said. The school’s security procedures were followed before the breach, said Bill Hogue, USC’s vice president for information technology.
According to The State reports, USC has found no evidence that the hacker or hackers accessed or used any information on the College of Education computer server, but school officials decided to send notices to everyone in the database so individuals can place fraud alerts to notify them of suspicious activity on their credit reports.
The school has hired Nashville-based Kroll Advisory Solutions to assist those affected for a year with posting fraud alerts and analyzing credit reports to detect problems, USC spokesman Wes Hickman said. He said he did not know if the cost of monitoring was included in the service.
