US Uni campus hack provokes security alert

The personal info of more than 160,000 current and former students and staff at the University of California, Berkeley has potentially been exposed after hackers broke into campus health service computers.

The University admitted the breach on Friday but said that medical treatment records were not exposed by the hack, even though other sensitive information, such as social security numbers and appointment diaries, was left up for grabs. Electronic medical records are stored on a system separate from the network affected by the breach, thought to have taken place on 21 April.

University authorities are sending notification letters and emails to those affected. Outside security consultants will be hired to assist in an investigation of the breach, and recommend precautions against a repetition of the incident.

The cause of the breach remains unclear. Santa Barbara, another campus in the University of California network, has distinguished itself with a recent investigation of the Torpig botnet network. So if Berkeley's admins need a few pointers in computer forensics then they could do a lot worse than give their counterparts down the coast a call. ®