Iowa State University has revealed that servers holding the Social Security numbers of nearly 30,000 students have been compromised in a security breach

By Ann Longmore-Etheridge

Iowa State University has revealed that servers holding the Social Security numbers of nearly 30,000 students have been compromised in a security breach. According to The Des Moines Register, "Information technology staff discovered a breach of five departmental servers that contained Social Security and university ID numbers for students who took classes in computer science, world languages and cultures, and materials science and engineering. The students whose information was contained on these servers were enrolled between 1995 and 2012. In addition to the 29,780 Social Security numbers exposed in the breach, an additional 18,949 students’ university IDs were on the servers. There was no financial information in the exposed records. A hacker or hackers accessed the servers to generate enough computing power to create bitcoins, a digital currency, according to a news release from the university." Students affected are being notified and the help of an identity protection firm enlisted.

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