http://www.uaf.edu/sunstar/archives/20060926/hacking.html By NATE RAYMOND Managing Editor September 26, 2006 UAF police asked the FBI to investigate the hacking at the Bethel campus in April, but answers remain illusive into who illegally accessed a server containing personal information for 38,941 current and former students and employees. "Right now, it's still a pending investigation," said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzales. "So at this point, there's really little I can say on the subject." Sean McGee, UAF chief of police, said he chose to involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the investigation on April 24, four days after UAF announced the hacking occurred. UAF announced April 20 that hackers accessed server at the Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel multiple times from February 2005 to January 2006. Records later showed that university official in Bethel had known about the hackings since at least October. According to an information resource security incident report, dated April 18, the Bethel-based Windows 2003 server was called "Yukon." Hackers had accessed it and installed rogue FTP servers into the computer, the report says. No one was fired because of the hacking, said Steve Smith, the chief of the UA Office of Information Technology. Handling the FBI investigation is the Anchorage field office, which "employs individuals with the necessary training, experience, and equipment to investigate this type of criminal act," McGee said via e-mail this summer. Smith said it could be a while longer before the FBI wraps up its work. The bureau probably has higher priorities, he said. Law enforcement officials have also utilized the computer forensic facilities at UAF's Advanced System Security Education, Research and Training Center. "It sounds to me like they have it and it's not officially closed, but it's not the first thing they do in the morning," Smith said. The UAF police received no reports of identity theft during the summer that appeared connected to the Bethel hacking, McGee said. UAF police did receive a report Aug. 23 from a woman in Anchorage who said an unauthorized bank account had been opened in her name, according to police daily incident reports. The unnamed woman, who used to be affiliated with UAF, said the incident might have been related to the hacking. Lt. Syrilyn Tong said no proof exists to substantiate her claim. In response to the Bethel hacking, the university is trying to tighten security and reduce its use of Social Security numbers. OIT performed a system-wide search for other hacked systems or systems with files containing personal information and found some computers with those types of files. The office isolated those systems and removed them, Smith said. In addition, OIT is preparing to spend at least $200,000 to engage a consulting firm to do an external review of the university system, Smith said. "This review will look in particular at UAF, but it will also look across the system because we are all connected," Smith said. The external review will be discussed Oct. 5 at the Information Technology Council's monthly meeting. The meeting is open to the public. A task force is also drafting up policy to put before the Board of Regents as early as December on how Social Security numbers should be used on campus, university spokeswoman Kate Ripley said. Several systems still use Social Security numbers as identifiers. On UAOnline, students can use them if they don't remember their 30 million numbers, the administration's name for the student ID's it assigns students on their first day of enrollment. "We're really looking to craft some policy to go before the Board of Regents that would sort of direct that this is a real priority and that it's something we want to take care of," Ripley said. _________________________________ Visit the InfoSec News store! http://www.shopinfosecnews.org
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