Personal information has been affected following a data breach at Simon Fraser University (SFU).
A letter was sent out to faculty, staff, students, alumni and retirees – who joined the post-secondary institution before June 20, 2019 – to change their SFU Computing ID password after a data breach occurred on Feb. 27.
“While it does not appear that any SFU Computing accounts have been compromised, changing your password now will significantly mitigate that risk,” said SFU’s website.
SFU’s system was “subjected to a ransomware attack that found a weakness in the way the information was handled.”
The issue was “corrected” the following day and no systems are exposed at this time.
However, the school said that a potential risk of identity theft and unsolicited emails may occur because information such as full names, birthdates, student ID numbers, course enrollments, email addresses and encrypted passwords were exposed.
Steps are being taken by the school to control and reduce the potential harm from this breach as well as future incidents by investigating and reviewing changes to security and policies.
