University of the People is a non-profit online institution that offers distance learning opportunities for interested students. Tuition at the school is around 1,200, and there are more than 7,000 students currently enrolled. This online university recently suffered from a data breach that may have exposed its students to identity theft and phishing risks.
This University of the People data breach occurred when a single attacker managed to get into the SharePoint data servers of the school. Once inside the network, they accessed student data, some of which were personal and protected. The attacker was able to gather a significant amount of data and could use it in harmful ways.
The University of the People data breach began on January 2, 2023, and persisted until January 10, 2023. During that time, data for students and parents was accessible to the attackers. Third-party security experts worked to secure the network during the time of the attack, but access was possible for more than one week before it was cut off.
This UOP data breach impacts students, parents of students, and staff members at the school. Anyone with data stored in the SharePoint platform was at risk of being exposed by this attack and losing some of their data to hackers.
There is no count of UOPeople files accessed during the data breach. What is known is that several different files were available to access but have no way of knowing how many of them were actually utilized in the attack. We do know that hundreds of students may have been impacted. If you receive a notice about the breach from the university, you should use the year of free credit monitoring that's available to you to protect your credit.