Updated story: EMU officials say login information was compromised in security breach
An Eastern Michigan University computer server was hacked into late Friday, potentially exposing employees' direct deposit banking information, some university passwords and personal identification numbers, according to an e-mail sent to the EMU community tonight.
The security breach occurred about 11:30 p.m. Friday, according to the e-mail, and was discovered Saturday by the school’s IT staff during routine system monitoring. It happened on a server that controls my.emich passwords and Banner Self-Service PIN codes for students and employees.
At this point, there has been no indication of any unusual activity on anyone’s accounts, said Walter Kraft, EMU vice president of communications.
Cyber security
The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team is the operational arm of the National Cyber Security Division at the Department of Homeland Security.
- Visit http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ for tips on general security and e-mail and mobile device privacy, among others.
Kraft said the way the system is set up, it would be difficult for anyone to actually access personal information after hacking into the server.
“Someone would really have to work hard and really know what they are doing to find (personal information),” Kraft said.
EMU’s e-mail system was inaccessible for some time today, but Kraft said that problem wasn’t related to the security breach.
EMU’s information technology department is investigating what happened, and the school’s Department of Public Safety is opening an investigation as well. An outside data breach consultant is also working with the university.
Anyone who has questions or suspects unusual activity is asked to contact EMU’s information technology staff by e-mailing helpdesk@emich.edu.
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