LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- The University of California, Los Angeles, reports one or more computer hackers have accessed a database containing the personal information of 800,000 people.
The school said the central campus database was accessed between October 2005 and Nov. 21 of this year, when the breach was detected, the Los Angeles Times said Tuesday. The database contains the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of current and former students, faculty and staff members.
"We take our responsibility to safeguard personal information very seriously," acting Chancellor Norman Abrams said in a letter to those whose information had been compromised. "My primary concern is to make sure this does not happen again" and to minimize the risk of identity theft for those whose records were at risk, he said.
Abrams said in the letter that no evidence had yet been uncovered that the information accessed by the hackers has been misused. However, he urged affected parties to monitor their credit card transactions and financial statements.
