EWU breach could affect 130,000 students, grads

Eastern Washington University officials are notifying students from as far back as 1987 that computer records containing information about them, including Social Security numbers, have been breached. As many as 130,000 people may be involved, and notification is going to occur over the next two weeks. The computer breach was recently discovered during an assessment of the university network. It was found that a hacker had installed software to store and share video files on the university system, said Dave Meany, university spokesman in a press release. While there was no evidence that personal information was taken, the university wants those whose records were exposed to be aware of the potential problems raised by the hacking, he said. The university is recommending that persons who receive the letter place a fraud alert with a credit reporting agency. The notification letters provide phone numbers to do that.