The University of Rochester Suffered a Data Breach to Its Students and Staff

The University of Rochester is a mid-sized school in New York State. It was founded in 1850 and has more than 12,000 students overall. The school maintains over 30,000 staff members overall and manages a large amount of data for all those individuals. Since data is largely digital today, the school is a major target for data breaches and identity theft. With breaches becoming so common today, it's not surprising the school suffered from a recent breach. Students and faculty have both been put at risk by this recent breach. 

How Did the Attack Occur?

The attack occurred when the Rochester University servers were broken into because of a security flaw in third-party software used by the school. There aren't substantial details about the attack right now, but we know that data was taken from the school and that students and faculty could be at risk because of the breach. We don't know the specific timeline for this breach, but the school came forward explaining that its systems had been compromised and that students and faculty should be taking action to protect their accounts and their information. 

What Information Was Viewed or Stolen?

We don't have details about what information was taken in this breach, but we suspect some personal data was lost in the breach. The school is working with cyber experts to look through all the data that was taken in this data breach and to try and determine what risks were created by the breach overall. It will take some time to determine all these specifics, and the university explains that it will update individuals about these things as new information is uncovered. 

How Did the University of Rochester Admit to the Breach?

The school released a statement about the data breach explaining how attackers were able to gain entry into its systems. No official papers have been filed with an Attorney General's office yet because the full details of the attack are still unknown. 

What Will Become of the Stolen Information?

Since we don't know all the specific information involved in this breach, we cannot say exactly what will happen to the data taken during it. We only know that there are students that were likely compromised in the breach. It's likely the information will be spread around the internet and that some attackers will use it for identity theft purposes. There are great risks associated with most major data breaches, and the University of Rochester works with more than 12,000 students as well as 30,000 faculty members, which puts so many individuals at risk because of this attack. 

What Should Affected Parties Do in the Aftermath of the Breach?

In the future, the University will likely send out notices to anyone impacted by this data breach. Before then, you should update your university passwords and start monitoring your credit and financial and accounts for any odd changes. Take steps to prevent attacks from occurring on your personal credit, and you'll be safer if your data was exposed in this breach. It isn't necessary to put a freeze on your credit, to close financial accounts, or do anything too significant at this time, but anyone associated with the University of Rochester should watch the details of this breach closely and monitor their own accounts and identity for potential problems.