HJNews reports:
A Utah State University staff member accidentally sent an email message Thursday containing 347 individual names and Social Security numbers to a group of USU student veterans, the university revealed Friday.
Read more on HJNews.
The full statement from the university, linked from their home page yesterday, reads:
Accidental security breach affects 347 students
Friday, Feb. 06, 2015
A Utah State University staff member accidentally sent an email message Thursday, Feb. 5, containing 347 individual names and social security numbers to a group of USU student Veterans. The email included social security numbers and names, but no other personal information. The email went to 1,033 people.
USU took immediate action to notify those people affected and offered to enroll them in a credit monitoring program for the next 12 months at no cost.
University officials apologized and took steps to ensure that a disclosure of personal information does not happen again. This was an unintentional human error in which a critical procedure was not followed. We have already changed processes in response to this incident and reviewed procedures with the office involved.
USU has also advised the email recipients whose sensitive information was released to monitor their financial accounts.
The university is committed to maintaining the privacy of student and employee information by continually improving systems and practices to enhance the security of sensitive information.
Contact: Tim Vitale, [email protected]