400,000 Records Exposed in Michigan State University Breach

Hackers attempted to extort Michigan State University after gaining access to a database containing 400,000 student and employee records. The organization believes that only a few hundred records have actually been stolen by the attackers.

MSU reported on Friday that an unauthorized party breached one of its servers on November 13. The attacker accessed a database containing 400,000 records, including names, social security numbers, MSU identification numbers and dates of birth of current and former students and employees.

The exposed information dates as far back as 1970. MSU pointed out that passwords, contact details and financial information were not stored in the affected database.

The university said it took the affected database offline within 24 hours after discovering the breach and it determined that only 449 of the records have been accessed by the hackers.

Affected individuals have been offered two years of free identity protection and fraud recovery services. The incident is being investigated by the MSU Police Department in collaboration with federal law enforcement authorities.

Michigan State University representatives told Fox47News that the hackers attempted to extort the organization after gaining access to the database. It’s unclear how much money they wanted, but the university said it refused to pay up.

This is not the first time MSU has suffered a data breach. In 2012, a hacker leaked roughly 1,500 records allegedly stolen from the university’s systems and, in 2013, the organization admitted that hackers modified employee banking information using stolen credentials.

According to DataBreaches.net, a hacker recently leaked contact information and credentials allegedly stolen from MSU. The hacker published the data in late October and the incident does not appear to be related to the November 13 breach.

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