FBI Probes Computer Breach at Stanford

The May 11 breach occurred from outside Stanfords network.

Data on 9,600 clients and 300 recruiters, dating to 1995, were stored on the system.

The data included names, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and letters of recommendation, according to a statement attributed to Debra Zumwalt, Stanfords general counsel.

The university disabled the computer system at the Career Center and contacted the San Jose, Calif., office of the FBI when it learned of the breach.

There is no evidence, yet, that any of the information was used in identity theft, the university said.

The Stanford incident is similar to an incident at the University of California at Berkeley in August 2004, in which hackers compromised a database with information on 600,000 people that was being used in a study on home health care in California.

Stanford said it is reviewing its security policies in the wake of the attack with an eye to improving policies and practices.

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