FBI probes system breach at Stanford

The FBI is investigating a computer system security breach at Stanford University that may have put the personal information of nearly 10,000 people at risk, the university said.

The intrusion occurred on 11 May at the Career Development Center (CDC), when someone gained access to the school's network from outside the university, Stanford general counsel Debra Zumwalt said. The university said it began notifying about 9,600 clients on Monday - mostly students - and 300 recruiters who registered at the office since 1996.

Client records included Social Security numbers and resumes, financial or government information, the university said. However, some recruiter records included credit card information.

When the network breach was detected, the CDC's computers were temporarily disabled and the incident was reported to the FBI field office in San Jose, California.

Zumwalt said in a statement: "Protection of confidential information is a high priority of Stanford. Since this incident, we have been working to understand this breach of our system and ways to prevent a reoccurrence."

The notifications were made in accordance with the 2003 Security Breach Information Act, which requires companies to disclose incidents in which a California resident's confidential information has been jeopardised.

The break-in follows a similar incident at Virginia's George Mason University in January, where hackers gained access to the personal information - including Social Security numbers - of more than 30,000 students, faculty and staff. As a result of the attack, the university promised to change the manner in which it uses Social Security numbers to identify people, including striking the codes from its campus IDs.

Steven Musil writes for CNET News.com