UC Berkeley Students, Staff At Risk Amid Data Breach: Report

BERKELEY, CA — UC Berkeley students and staff are among those at risk amid a massive data breach, The Mercury News reports.

The report cites an alert it obtained from UC Berkeley’s Office of Emergency Management warning that sensitive personal information, such as bank accounts and Social Security numbers may be vulnerable as a result of a cyberattack impacting the entire UC system.

“The cyberattack that the University of California announced on Friday is a serious one. Your personal information, including Social Security number and bank account information, may be at risk,” the alert said.

The university issued a statement Monday saying that hackers gained access to the sensitive data through an cyberattack on Accellion, a vendor it contracts with to manage data.

The statement said the university is among hundreds of institutions in the country impacted by the data breach.

“We are working with local and federal law enforcement and third-party vendors to investigate this incident, to assess the information that has been compromised, to enforce the law, and to limit the release of stolen information,” the statement said.

The university is advising all students and staff to set up and monitor bank account alerts and fraud monitoring services.

It is warning of suspicious emails.

“We believe the person(s) behind the Accellion FTA attack may send threatening mass emails in an attempt to scare people into giving them money,” the statement said.

“Anyone receiving such an email should either forward it to your local information security office or simply delete it. Please do not engage or respond.”

Read more in The Mercury News