KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 14 (UPI) -- A hacker got into the University of Missouri-Kansas City's computer system, compromising about 17,000 passwords, the Kansas City Star reported Wednesday.
University officials confirmed the security violation Tuesday.
"If someone got that file and knew what they were doing, they could get working passwords, if they had it four days," Gary Fish, head of Fishnet Security Systems, said.
The school's entire Internet system was temporarily shut down Monday, as students returned from holiday break to classes. All university users were required to change their passwords to new, more complicated ones.
School officials said they have turned the investigation over to the FBI. But they insist the security breach was a one-time incident that their anti-hacker software detected.
The hacker downloaded an encrypted file containing passwords for university e-mail accounts, said Tom Brenneman, interim director of information services. He said there was no evidence that any other university files had been tampered with.
"We are confident that we have stopped any and all problems with this," Brenneman said.
