The scholastic and athletic fans at the University of Florida have one less thing to be excited about.  It seems that with all the money spent on a football team that recently won a national championship; someone forgot to create a new manual that reminded system administrators of what they’re not supposed to do.  This small oversight resulted in a data breach that exposed the personal data of over 11,000 students.  While some of the students are still in attendance, the majority of individuals have graduated and move on to areas outside of academia.

For those who are worried about the breach, the affected individuals come from a select number of people.  The majority of the people affected were involved with the Office for Academic Support and Institutional Service.  This office is also known as OASIS.  People who participated in this program between 2003 and 2005 and filled out the online application need to be on alert.  One might suspect that people who fall into this category may be some of the university’s athletic stars.  Although the university has said that the affected students or alumni have received a letter from the school with more details about the case.

There has been no word about how long the material was available to the public.  There has been an equally quiet front about how the breach was discovered and if the university took any delay before having the problem dealt with.  This reporter has checked the public database that the material used to be in and happily reports that the site has been closed and the private data removed.  Investigations will continue in to the matter to insure the safety of everyone’s personal identity.  It is also expected that the university will update its security systems and implement new policies to prevent breaches in the future.  Hopefully they do not take a page out of Columbia University’s (link) playbook, where two breaches have occurred in the last year.

While the university has made every effort to contact affected individuals, Florida officials say that there are over 500 people who cannot be reached.  This is through a failure of the university to maintain contact with some of its alumni and former students who do not keep in touch with their Alma Mater.  If you believe that you fall into the at risk category of online applicants through OASIS in the years listed above, contact the university as soon as possible.

In the meantime, representatives from Florida have not said how they plan to protect their alumni.  Some institutions provide free ID theft services when data breaches occur.  One of the companies that most corporations and schools deal with is Lifelock. While it is available to individuals, many larger institutions also use the service because they find that its policy of maintaining ties with all three credit bureaus is a wise approach.  Lifelock monitors personal credit reports and alerts consumers whenever a new loan or credit card application is taken out with their personal data.