University of Alabama Data Breach Exposes Social Security Numbers

What Happened?

On February 19, 2024, a security incident at The University of Alabama led to unauthorized access to an employee's email account. Upon discovery, the university officials took immediate action to assess the extent of the breach. It was found that the compromised email account contained multiple documents with personally identifiable information (PII) of individuals associated with the university. Although there is no evidence to suggest that the exposed information has been misused, the potential for unauthorized viewing was present.

The types of PII that were potentially exposed include names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and possibly other sensitive details. This incident has raised concerns about the security measures in place and the risk it poses to those whose information may have been compromised.

The University of Alabama is now facing the challenge of reinforcing its cybersecurity measures. In response to the breach, the university is offering affected individuals two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft detection services. These services are designed to help protect individuals from potential financial harm and to provide peace of mind.

For more information on the breach and how to enroll in the protection services, affected individuals can refer to the Notice to Consumers provided by The University of Alabama. Additionally, the university has established a dedicated call center to address any questions or concerns related to the incident. The call center can be reached at 1-800-939-4170 and is available Monday through Friday from 6 am to 6 pm Pacific Time.

To further assist those impacted, The University of Alabama has also provided a list of recommended steps to help protect personal information, which includes activating the offered credit monitoring, reviewing credit reports, and considering placing fraud alerts or security freezes on credit files.

The university is taking this incident seriously and is committed to preventing such breaches in the future. Measures such as requiring two-factor authentication for all university email accounts are being implemented to strengthen security protocols.

For more detailed instructions and to enroll in the free credit monitoring services, please visit the IDX identity protection website using the enrollment code provided in the Notice to Consumers.