Stanford University has announced having graduate applications to its Economics Department for the 2022-23 academic year compromised by a data breach, according to BleepingComputer.
Unauthorized access to Economics Ph.D. program admission files was obtained through a misconfiguration in the file folder's settings, said Stanford University, which noted that breach notifications have already been sent to 897 individuals affected by the incident.
Stanford University noted that applicants' names, birthdates, phone numbers, home and mailing addresses, and email addresses, as well as their gender, citizenship, race, ethnicity, and some of their health information, may have been exposed as a result of the incident. However, the breach has not impacted applicants' Social Security numbers and financial details.
Other Stanford programs were also not affected by the incident. "In response to this incident, we are updating our processes and policies related to electronic file storage security and will be retraining faculty and staff on the policies," said Stanford.
