Student Data Compromised

[Cerebus]

This isnt football or sports, but I thought it was important.

I felt strongly that you needed this information as soon as possible - you probably will see this story in the media as early as this afternoon since we are making a high-profile announcement to try to protect our university family.

The security break involved personal information records held in conjunction with our housing and financial aid operations. We anticipate that personal information for more than 38,000 current, former and prospective students was publicly accessible because of a breach of a server by a hacker and a mistake made on one of our data collection forms.

While we have no evidence that any of the information has been used for identify theft, there is no way for UNT to be 100 percent certain this is not the case.

I want to assure you that we took immediate action to protect our UNT family as soon as we learned of this unfortunate situation. We immediately began working to secure the information and alert those affected. At the same time, we began setting up a hotline and web site to provide further information. We are working with the local media to get this message out to the public.

The records in housing included information on individuals dating from 1999 forward, and the records in financial aid are from individuals who used a web-based form to inquire about their aid from 2001 to now.

If you think you might have been affected, I strongly encourage you to take the appropriate steps to protect yourself. First, please visit our web site at www.securityid.unt.edu to verify if you are impacted. If it appears that some of your personal information was publicly accessible, you will be given information about the steps you should take.

My recommendation is for all current/former students to check thier data, especially if you have lived in student housing anytime between 1999 and now

[UNTFan23]

I always thought the computer systems housing used were held together by bubble gum and bailing wire.

[mad dog]

If you go or have recently gone to UNT, you need to check this out: https://www.securityid.unt.edu/

[untgirl04]

So what can you do if they've got your name and SSN? The site's got all kinds of information about credit card information, but I'm more concerned with them using my SSN or Student ID number...

[EagleChick03]

Yeahhhhhh. They took my name and social security number. I'm not a big fan of the school rightn now.

[MootPoint]

It is not certain anyone's information was actually accessed from what I have heard. But, I thought I might point people who are concerned to this website to get free copies of their credit report. Actually, everyone should really check their reports on occasion. You never know what could be wrong on there.

https://www.annualcreditreport.com

[Cerebus]

Bump.

[EagleChick03]

So only two of us were even affected by this?!? Has anyone else in that timeframe of info taken checked the site to see what of their info may have been taken?

[good_ken]

I lived in the dorms from 1997-2000; and was not listed as being affected.

[UNTFan23]

Myself, brother, and sis-in-law were all effected in various degrees of exposure.

[SilverEagle]

My son was affected.

[Monkeypox]

I was on the list, but I wasn't actually affected.

[NTEdgex2]

My daughter lived in a dorm '99-'00. Website said her name and SSN could have been accessed so she put a fraud alert on her credit on Experian. They said they would share with the other two credit reporting companies.

GMG!

[UNT_92_Fan]

they got my stuff too...i am glad this happened in the sense that i now know about the 1200 dollar laon on my credit from 1986....I took it out in Oregon and I was only four....makes alot of sense...looks like i have been hit before! Well At least i still have the certainity of the starting QB for next season....$hit all hell has broke loose hasn't it?

[hope24]

I find it kind of funny that they told everyone to go run a credit check at annualcreditreport.com, because from what I can tell, those credit reports they give out for free only go through June 1 of this year, before the security incident happened. Wouldn't this just make things worse in that some students may think they are in the clear because nothing suspicious shows up on there, when in fact it just isn't recent enough, or am I wrong about the date? Mine didn't show any activity after June 1, and the website says that June 1 is the date that the southern states make credit reports available, which seems to suggest that the report only runs through that date.

[SAGreenFan]

I was affected too, SSN, Name, Class, Address and Phone Number. I wonder if this is going to affect the financial Aid disbursement since I havent eve been OFFERED anything yet.

[MootPoint]

I find it kind of funny that they told everyone to go run a credit check at annualcreditreport.com, because from what I can tell, those credit reports they give out for free only go through June 1 of this year, before the security incident happened.  Wouldn't this just make things worse in that some students may think they are in the clear because nothing suspicious shows up on there, when in fact it just isn't recent enough, or am I wrong about the date?  Mine didn't show any activity after June 1, and the website says that June 1 is the date that the southern states make credit reports available, which seems to suggest that the report only runs through that date.

←

The reports should be through the date that you request. So if you requested a report today, anything that has happened through yesterday should be on there. If there is no activity since June 1, it means you haven't applied for credit or had any inquiries since June 1 (that has been reported to any of the credit agencies). That's my understanding of how credit reports work anyway.

Edited August 10, 2005 by MootPoint