http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/115789 By Djamila Grossman Arizona Daily Star Tucson, Arizona 02.14.2006 Hackers broke into the computer system of the University of Arizona journalism department, and students were unable to use the computers Monday. All of the department's Apple Macintosh computers were affected and have been logged off the server and the Internet until the problem is solved, said Jacqueline Sharkey, head of the department. No information has been lost so far, she said. It was unclear Monday how long it would take to fix the security leak, she said. "It's a very serious issue, and we took action immediately," Sharkey said. Department officials uncovered the problem during the weekend when they ran a security check on the computers. Many of the computers have had issues in the past weeks that led to temporary shutdowns, but Sharkey said everyone thought it was a hardware problem. The computers are protected by a password, and Sharkey said she suspects that the hackers got through by trying "again and again and again." The security check showed that in other unrelated cases, hackers from Korea and Indonesia had tried to gain access to the system but were unsuccessful, she said. "No type of computer is invulnerable," she said. "Attempts are really common, but they usually fail. In this particular case, the person was able to get in." The department works together with the UA's Center for Computing and Information Technology, which determined that the hacker was in Romania, Sharkey said. Computers used by students to produce the Daily Wildcat newspaper were not affected. All journalism classes will continue on schedule. _________________________________ InfoSec News v2.0 - Coming Soon! http://www.infosecnews.org
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