Tech, has confirmed a data breach that has exposed personal
information of 1.3 million current and former faculty members,
students, staff and student applicants.
In a brief note published Tuesday, Georgia Tech says an
unknown outside entity gained “unauthorized access” to its web
application and accessed the University’s central database by
exploiting a vulnerability in the web app.
Georgia Tech traced the first unauthorized access to its system
to December 14, 2018, though it’s unclear how long the unknown
attacker(s) had access to the university database containing
sensitive students and staff information.
The database contained names, addresses, social security numbers,
internal identification numbers, and date of birth of current and
former students, faculty and staff, and student applicants.
However, the University has launched a forensic investigation to
determine the full extent of the breach.
“The information illegally accessed by an unknown outside entity
was located on a central database. Georgia Tech’s cybersecurity
team is conducting a thorough forensic investigation to determine
precisely what information was extracted from the system, which may
include names, addresses, social security numbers, and birth
dates,” the note published[1]
on the University website reads.
the end of last month when it noticed a significant performance
impact.
“Application developers for the Institute noticed a significant
performance impact in one of its web applications and began an
investigation on March 21, 2019,” Georgia Tech says in the FAQs
detailing the incident.
“During this investigation, it was determined the performance issue
was the result of a security incident.”
started notifying potentially impacted individuals via email.
The University is also “coordinating with consumer reporting
agencies and the University System of Georgia to determine what
protections will be provided” to the affected individuals.
Georgia Tech has also notified the U.S. Department of Education
and University System of Georgia (USG) and is expected to release
more information soon.
“We continue to investigate the extent of the data exposure and
will share more information as it becomes available. We apologize
for the potential impact on the individuals affected and our larger
community. We are reviewing our security practices and protocols
and will make every effort to ensure that this does not happen
again,” the University said.
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