December 22, 2006
For Immediate Release
For more information :
Chris Taylor
(801) 863-8484
(801)472-8588
UVSC Distance Ed notifies students of security incident
Utah Valley State College (UVSC) became aware on December 5, 2006, of a security incident in which some College files containing certain Distance Education student and faculty personal information, including Social Security numbers, were accessed by Yahoo and made available on Yahoo's search engine between approximately Nov. 2 and Dec. 12, 2006.
Once College officials became aware of the incident, the files were immediately deleted from UVSC's servers and Yahoo was immediately contacted. These files are no longer accessible through Yahoo or any other public means.
The Utah Valley State College Distance Education Department this week began the process of notifying by mail approximately 15,000 Distance Education students and faculty members involved in Distance Education courses at the College of this incident. The data in question pertain only to Distance Education instructors and Distance Education students who attended UVSC between January 2002 and January 2005. Not all Distance Education faculty and students who were enrolled in courses during this timeframe were affected.
Those potentially affected are urged to take precautionary measures by monitoring their bank and credit card statements, requesting a copy of their credit report and reviewing it thoroughly, and potentially placing a fraud alert on their credit. In order to assist students and faculty members with as much information as possible, UVSC has established a web site dedicated to this issue accessible at www.uvsc.edu/it/idalert.html. The college has also established a telephone hotline accessible at 801-863-8200.
"We're very disappointed this incident has occurred and we want the entire UVSC community to know that we take this incident very seriously and have taken steps to ensure that it doesn't happen again," said Ray Walker, UVSC's Chief Information Officer. "Although we have no evidence that the files were accessed for malicious purposes, the affected students and faculty need to be aware of this security breach so they can make their own determination and take necessary steps to protect their identity."
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800 W. University Parkway, Orem, UT 84058-5999 Telephone (801) 863-8206, Facsimile (801) 863-8343