JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It's the kind of information that can be used to steal your identity. Now 23,246 University of North Florida students are vulnerable.
"That's extremely scary," said Courtney Wood. She spent her first year living in the Crossing dorms.
"I met a lot of good friends. It was freshman year so I really didn't know anybody. So it was good for that," she said.
But now she and thousands of others who applied for campus housing are at risk after someone broke into the server.
"The specific database they were able to get into listed names and social security numbers and that is what concerns us most," said the Assistant VP of Public Relations, Sharon Ashton.
Anyone who submitted an application between 1997 through the spring semester of 2011 is a potential victim.
"We've turned off the server. We have moved the information to a different server and put controls on it," said Ashton.
Officials say the information was hacked by someone outside of the school. Right now university, local and state authorities are investigating.
"We have no evidence that this person copied or downloaded this information, but we can't rule it out," said Ashton.
UNF is spending $80,000 to provide victims with a year's worth of credit protection. But Courtney fears this could happen again.
"With the university you have to give information. So if you have to give it, you don't have a choice. They need our social security. They need our information. I would still give it," she said.
The University recommends that those who may have been affected place a fraud alert on their credit files with one of the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, or Trans-Union.
UNF has set up a hotline, (904) 620-5499, during normal business hours from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday to answer questions concerning the data breach. An e-mail account has also been set up,
databreach@unf.edu.
