60,000 University of Wisconsin-Madison Social Security Numbers Hacked

Written on December 8, 2010 – 10:35 pm | by Chloe Gatenby

University of Wisconsin-Madison officials say hackers broke into their computer systems and had access to the Social Security numbers of 60,000 people related to the university.

The university became aware of the problem on October 26th and notified the students, faculty and staff members in a letter dated November 30th, said UW-Madison spokesman John Lucas.

An investigation by University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Information Technology and office of computer security found nothing to suggest that anyone had downloaded or used the information in any unauthorized way, Lucas said. The identities of those who obtained unauthorized access remain unknown.

UW discovered the hack from what they referred to as a breach in the “Legacy Database.” The “Legacy Database” refers to Wiscards printed prior to 2008 that had student’s Social Security numbers embedded on the cards, Lucas said.

“It’s important for current students within the last two years (to know they) are not affected by this… the Wiscards with the Social Security numbers were deactivated in 2008,” Lucas said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean anyone with a Wiscard before 2008 [had their information exposed].”

“Certainly it’s a fairly substantial exposure when you talk about 60,000 people… it does not ensure that hackers are in receipt of the Social Security numbers,” Lucas said. “To the best of their knowledge… they had not been downloaded.”

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