Authorities Thursday sought computer hackers who stole the names and Social Security numbers of 59,000 current and former students, faculty and staff last week at the University of Texas at Austin. Computer logs indicate the information was obtained by computers in Austin and Houston over a five-day period that began last Wednesday, according to UT officials. They don’t know yet if the identification information was used for any illegal purposes. Don Hale, vice president for public affairs at UT-Austin, said Thursday state and federal authorities are trying to recover the data as quickly as possible. “The first step is to recover the data and determine how it has been used … if it has been used,” he said. “It could very well be that whoever took this simply has it and it has not been compromised beyond that.” The U.S. attorney and the Travis County district attorney have been called into the investigation and they have prepared search warrants. No other details were immediately available from law enforcement. Hale said UT officials would not attempt to contact every person who might be affected by the loss of the data until they know more about it’s status. He said a link on the UT Web site at utexas.edu/datatheft would have the latest information. Full Story
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