Personal Info Of 80,000 Exposed In UC Berkeley Cyber-Attack
BERKELEY (CBS SF) – Officials at the University of California, Berkeley are warning about 80,000 people about a cyber-attack on a system that holds Social Security and bank account numbers.
According to the university, an unauthorized person or persons accessed part of the Berkeley Financial System in December 2015. The system was used for financial management, purchasing and non-salary payments such as student financial aid awards and employee reimbursements.
Officials said unauthorized access was gained through a security flaw the school was in the process of patching.
UC Berkeley said 57,000 current and former students, about 18,800 current and former employees and 10,300 vendors may have been impacted.
"We regret that this occurred and have taken additional measures to better safeguard that information," UC Berkeley chief information security officer Paul Rivers said in a statement.
The school said it had no evidence that an unauthorized individual actually accessed, acquired or used personal information, but one year of free credit monitoring and other resources is being offered to those impacted.
Earlier this month, a report from the California Attorney General's Office found as many as three in five Californians may have had their electronic records stolen in 2015.