Files containing personal data were publicly made available

Dec 17, 2013 10:14 GMT  ·  By

The personal details of over 6,000 University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill current and former employees, vendors and students were publicly available online between July 30, 2013, and November 23, 2013. The breach was discovered on November 11.

The university’s representatives noted that the information became public after the safeguards that protected the files against public access were accidentally disabled during maintenance procedures.

The names, social security or employee tax identification numbers, and in some cases, addresses and birth dates became publicly accessible after Google indexed the files.

After discovering the incident, access to the files was blocked and Google was asked to take down the records.

The university started sending out letters to impacted individuals last week. Law enforcement authorities have not been called in since there’s no evident of criminal conduct.

UNC is not offering any credit monitoring services, but it does advise people to use free services, such as fraud alerts, if they feel their information might be misused.