California State-East Bay Employees May Have Had Data Breached

More than 2,000 current and former employees of California State University, East Bay, may have had their Social Security numbers and other personal information breached during a suspected break-in of a computer server on campus.

About 700 faculty members and 1,600 staff whose information was on that file were being sent letters this week warning that a hacker might have gained access to their personal data, said Cheryl Washington, the university’s chief information security coordinator.

The investigation began last week when the campus network security team noticed “unusual activity” on a server, Washington said. It was unclear whether the intruder gained access to the data.

“We don’t know for certain, but it is unlikely that information was extracted from the machine,” Washington said.

Previously a hacker broke into a Cal State East Bay server in September 2004, leading the school to warn about 2,000 students of the potential breach. The university has received no reports of fraud or data misuse in connection with the break-in.