Cabrillo College issues notice of data breach to 28,000 students

Thousands of students at Cabrillo college received a notice of a data breach yesterday.

Today, Cabrillo Community College tells us that it is addressing a security incident involving personal information of certain students. Cabrillo is notifying the potentially affected individuals to explain the incident, the responsive measures Cabrillo has taken, and steps the individuals can take to protect themselves. The college is also offering complimentary identity protection services to eligible individuals.

On September 5, 2017, Cabrillo learned that an unauthorized person gained access to one of its servers. The school immediately disabled the server, began an investigation, and determined that the server contained a database that maintained student orientation information. The student orientation information included the students’ names, dates of birth, email addresses, user names, and passwords used to access the orientation database, and in some instances Social Security numbers.

Officials tell us there were approximately 28,000 students whose usernames, passwords and email addresses were exposed. They have received email communication from the College about the incident.

There were approximately 12,000 students whose Social Security numbers were exposed. Letters have been sent out in the mail to those students.

Immediately upon learning of the incident, Cabrillo says officials obtained the assistance of a nationally known law firm experienced in addressing similar incidents, and put in place proactive notification measures as well as a call center for students whose information may have been affected. The school has no indication that the information has been accessed or used in any way. However, out of an abundance of caution, Cabrillo is proactively notifying the potentially affected individuals to provide guidance on how they can protect themselves.

As part of this protection, for eligible individuals, Cabrillo is offering a complimentary one-year membership in credit monitoring and identity theft protection services. Individuals with questions may call 1-888-396-9528, Monday through Friday, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Time.

The school says, “Cabrillo understands the importance of protecting student information, sincerely regrets that this incident occurred, and apologizes for any inconvenience or concern the incident may cause. To help prevent something like this from happening in the future, Cabrillo has enhanced the security of the orientation system, and has transitioned to a more secure password storage system.”