University of Michigan warns personal information leaked in cyberattack

A lot of sensitive personal information from students, applicants, employees and others has been leaked. during a cyberattack in Augustthe University of Michigan said Monday.

In an update on the incident, school officials explain that even though they managed to contain the cyberattack by disconnecting the campus network from the Internet, the hackers were still able to access some university systems from August 23 to 27.

The university hired an incident response company to assess the situation and determined that the hackers were able to access personal information relating to certain students and applicants, alumni and donors, employees and contractors, patients from the University Health Service and School of Dentistry, as well as participants in the research study. .

For students, applicants, alumni, donors, employees and contractors, information accessed included Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, government IDs, financial account numbers and payment card, as well as health information.

The hackers accessed this same information in addition to medical record numbers, diagnostic information, treatment data, and medication histories belonging to research study participants and patients at the University Health Service and the school of dental medicine.

The school did not respond to requests for comment on how many people had their information viewed.

The university said it was still working in coordination with law enforcement on this issue and sent letters to everyone affected on October 23.

All victims are offered free credit monitoring services for an undisclosed amount of time, and a call center is established for victims who have questions.

“The investigation was thorough and determined that the unauthorized third party was able to access certain information, including information relating to certain members of our community,” said Chief Information Officer Ravi Pendse and Chief Information Officer. information security Sol Bermann in a press release.

“We are currently in the process of informing those affected. We understand that this news is difficult and we are committed to supporting every member of our community.

The school’s more than 51,000 students were cut off from the Internet for several days at the start of the school year after the cyberattack was discovered.

The school never clarified whether it was a ransomware attack and no ransomware gang took credit for the incident.

But ransomware gangs are increasingly targeting state organizations with brazen attacks, damaging several community colleges across Michigan earlier this year as well one of the largest health systems in the state three weeks ago.

Jonathan Greig

Jonathan Greig is a breaking news reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked as a journalist around the world since 2014. Before returning to New York, he worked for media outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia. He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.