Florida State College at Jacksonville latest to experience data loss

Contributed by Roumiana Deltcheva (Mittwoch, 11 August 2010) | Category : Email security

Florida State College at Jacksonville is among six public institutions of higher education that may have experienced data loss earlier this year as a result of a breach on the schools' library system, according to the Florida Times-Union. Among the data involved in the breach were social security numbers and personal information, which could be used to commit identity theft.

The College Center for Library Automation in Tallahassee informed 30,000 students at the various schools of the potential issues. A software upgrade conducted between May 29 and June 2 made the data available, according to the news provider. A student reported the breach after finding personal information in Google search results. A number of American colleges and universities have experienced breaches in recent months, placing scrutiny on data-leak prevention at the nation's schools.

There have been no reports of the data being used to conduct any attacks, but students and state officials are advised to monitor their credit and other information to avoid any issues.

Pennsylvania State University has experienced three separate data breaches since December. Most recently, school IT officials found malware on a machine in PSU's library. The computer stored a file containing the social security numbers of 15,000 former students.