http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/14northwestern.html BY ASSOCIATED PRESS July 14, 2006 Northwestern University officials are trying to contact about 17,000 students and applicants to the school after discovering hackers broke into nine desktop computers on campus that contained personal information, the school said Friday. There is no indication the hackers who breached the computers in the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid in May gained access to the personal information or even were aware that the computers contained Social Security numbers, addresses and other information, according to Chuck Loebbaka, the school's director of media relations. But as a precaution, the university is trying to contact, via e-mail or letters, affected undergraduates, graduate students and applicants, Loebbaka said. The university also is advising anyone who provided Social Security numbers to the admissions and financial aid office to contact the fraud departments of the three major credit bureaus--Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union. The precaution is recommended by the Federal Trade Commission. Further, the school said those affected may want to ask credit bureaus to issue fraud alerts on their accounts. The school said the hackers were able to breach troubleshooting software that allows technical support staffers to access the computer functions from off campus. When the school discovered the breach in May, the computers were shut down and officials tried to determine who was affected and what information may have been at risk. Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. _________________________________ Attend the Black Hat Briefings and Training, Las Vegas July 29 - August 3 2,500+ international security experts from 40 nations, 10 tracks, no vendor pitches. www.blackhat.com
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