Hack of college database jeopardizes sensitive data of 125k students

An online database containing the personal information of 125,000 students at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was hacked.

How many victims? 125,000.

What type of personal information? Names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, race and contact information.

What happened? According to a statement by the community college, “sophisticated hackers” gained access on March 13 to the student application database. Information contained within belonged to students who applied to take courses from February 2005 through last month.

What was the response? The college sent letters to any students who may have been affected by the incident and offered one year of credit monitoring.

Details: The FBI informed college officials that the attack originated from a foreign IP address, but the country of origin is unknown.

Quote: “Unfortunately, we think we just found ourselves in the middle of something that's happening all over the world. In today's world, you can't protect anything 100 percent when it's online.” – Kristie Fisher, vice president of student services.