Breach, Data Security

Fresno State data breach, 15,000 affected

A stolen external hard drive has led to the personal information of more than 15,000 people formerly and currently associated with California State University at Fresno athletic department.

The hard drive was found to be missing on January 12, a theft the school believes most likely took place in late December during its winter break. The Porterville Recorder reported that the drive carried the information on 15,000 people, 300 currently at the school with the remainder being former student athletes, sports camp attendees, and athletic corporation employees.

Fresno States' statement did not confirm the numbers involved, but did say the information exposed includes names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, full or last four digits of Social Security numbers, credit-card numbers, driver's license numbers, passport numbers, user names and passwords, health-insurance numbers, and personal health information.

“Fresno State has no reason to believe that any of the information on the hard drive has been accessed or misused,” the school statement said.

The university has begun notifying those involved by letter and is offering free credit monitoring and recommends those included to keeping an eye on credit card usage.

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