UTD students, faculty, and staff records vulnerable after computer intrusion

by Alan Cohen

Names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and email addresses of about 5,000 students, faculty, and staff may have been exposed.

The University of Texas at Dallas has had a computer intrusion that may have leaked the private information for more 5,000 students, faculty, and staff. Here is the full letter that college president, David E. Daniel, sent out to the UTD community minutes ago:

Approximately 5,000 students, faculty, and staff at the University of Texas at Dallas as well as other individuals potentially have had sensitive information exposed by a computer network intrusion.

The personally identifiable information that may have been exposed includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, email addresses and telephone numbers.

There is no indication that the information has been disclosed, disseminated or used to anyone's detriment at this time. However, the University does not seek to minimize concerns raised by this intrusion, and in the best interests of those potentially affected seeks to notify anyone whose information may have been disclosed.

The individuals whose information is known to be involved at this time include:

In the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, students and faculty as well as applicants for admission dating back as far back as 1993.

All staff and faculty of the University who were employed from September 2003 through August 2005. The potential disclosure of data was discovered Sunday, December 10, by The University of Texas at Dallas information resources staff. The University of Texas at Dallas is responding aggressively to defend the integrity of the system and to assess the level of the threat to information contained on the system. Most but not all of the networked computing resources on campus have been assessed. Investigation is ongoing and updated information will be issued via email and the University homepage.

The University is in the process of contacting those individuals whose information could have been exposed. Individuals who are concerned that they might be affected by this intrusion are encouraged to go to https://www.utdallas.edu/datacompromise/form.html to submit contact information so that the University can respond, or call 972-883-4325 to leave contact information. Further information about protecting yourself (whether your information has been disclosed or not) is available at http://www.utdallas.edu/datacompromise/

Staff will continue to assess and respond to the situation. As a part of that assessment, University computers are being automatically checked by a program that is continuously sweeping the network to search out attempted intrusions. If the sweep detects irregular activity, it will generate instructions regarding any action you need to take.

To assist with this process, be sure to log off of your computer at the end of your work day, and to log on at the beginning.

A press release on this incident will be issued shortly in an effort to contact as many affected individuals as possible. Please share this information with the UT Dallas community.

Thank you.

David E. Daniel

President

In simpler terms, President Daniel is saying, "oops."

Screen shot of info form for students concerned about having personal information compromised

UPDATE:Any students who expresses concern by using the link President Daniel lists in his e-mail will be taken to a form page that requests entering much of the sensitive personal information that was potentially exposed in computer intrusion. But concerned students, faculty and staff might as well re-enter their private info anyway. What are the chances that the college exposes them twice in the same day? On second thought, maybe they shouldn't.