Personal data about IU students breached

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Indiana University revealed Tuesday that sensitive data, including the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of approximately 146,000 students and recent grads, had been accessed by an outside source.

Those affected include students and recent graduates at all seven campuses who attended the school from 2011 to 2014.

Students were surprised to hear their personal data may have been exposed.

“I keep it private to myself, the only other who knows my social security information is my mom and I don’t give it out to jobs or credit card companies or anything like that,” says sophomore Katie Price.



“I keep myself off of the internet with my social security number and even cell phone for that matter,” says senior Alanzo Bass.



Nearly 150,000 students at Indiana University campuses across the state could be victims of a data breach.



“It’s super scary to think,” says Price. “I would think we would have better firewall protection, better protection to protect students' information.”



The information was downloaded by “webcrawlers,” an automated computer data mining application to improve web search capabilities.



The university believes that no files have been released for illegal use.



“This is not a case of a targeted attempt to obtain data for illegal purposes,” says Indiana University South Bend Spokesperson, Ken Baierl. “The chance of sensitive data falling into the wrong hands is very remote.”



Students are still on edge knowing that it is getting easier for anybody to get their information.



“I know if I was one of those people I don’t want my information out their like that because someone can actually steal my identity,” says Price.



The University is in the process of contacting each student whose information was released and will provide services to help keep them safe.