In late September, 2007 the Liberty Coalition discovered six files that contain the names, social security numbers, gender, majors, grades, email addresses, department, etc. of approximately 22 students or former students at the University of Texas at Austin Petroleum and Geosystems Department. The files were available on an open university FTP site accessible through the search engine, www.filewatcher.com and perhaps other search engines. The affected students appear to be former enrollees of course PGE383 in the Summer of 2001 and 2002.
The University and FBI were notified of the exposure. The files were taken offline within hours, and University of Texas Chief Information Security Officer Cam Beasley wrote in an e-mail to the Liberty Coalition that “…the University of Texas at Austin takes these matters seriously and we are actively working to secure this information.” In a phone conversation, a University official indicated that they planned to immediately notify affected individuals directly, where possible.
You can confirm whether you were affected by this breach by searching for your name at www.ssnbreach.org.
Source: SSNBreach.org.