Hacker attack at UCLA affects 800,000 people

Officials at the University of California Los Angeles alerted about 800,000 current and former students, faculty and staff on Tuesday that their names and certain personal information were exposed after a hacker broke into a campus computer system.

The data included were names, birthdays, Social Security Numbers, and addresses..everything you would need to steal someone's identity. The attacks have been going on since October 2005 and ended November 21 of just this year, when computer security technicians noticed suspicious database searches, according to a news release posted on a school Web site set up to answer questions about the theft. Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams said in a letter to those affected, posted on the site, that while the database includes Social Security numbers, home addresses and birth dates, there is no evidence any data have been misused. The letter urges people to contact credit reporting agencies, credit card companies, and banks to minimize risk. It's really horrible to see that this could go on for 2 months let alone over a year!..someone needs to look into the IT department if these attacks can go on this long without notice.