Data breached — personal information from Florida Department of Education
The Turlington Building, which houses the Florida Department of Education, stands in the foreground, with the Tallahassee skyline, including the Capitol building, beyond. Photo taken from the FAMU campus on Dec. 31, 2024. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
Personal information, including Social Security numbers, of as many as 4.9 million individuals was vulnerable during a data breach at the Florida Department of Education, the agency announced Thursday.
The department learned about the breach of its financial aid website 10 days ago, on Oct. 19, officials said, categorizing the breach as “unauthorized criminal access.”
“An unauthorized party gained access to a system or database containing company or customer information,” a news release from the department said.
The department says financial aid itself is not at risk, including disbursements from the DOE.
“At this time, we believe the incident was limited to the Florida Student Financial Aid website,” the department said.
An attempt to visit the website Thursday afternoon prompted a page stating, “This site is currently under maintenance and will be available soon. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
In a response to the Phoenix’s inquiry about how long the breach lasted, the department said:
“The security of student and family information is a responsibility we take seriously. The Department acted swiftly to stop unauthorized access, contain the breach and secure its systems. We are working with our state partners to address this incident and determine its full scope. We are committed to keeping Floridians informed as verified information becomes available.
The Florida Department of Education recommends the following precautions, consistent with consumer best practices:
- Monitor your financial and online accounts for suspicious activity.
- Review account statements and credit reports regularly.
- Consider placing a fraud alert or credit freeze with major credit bureaus.
- Use Federal Trade Commission resources available at: https://www.identitytheft.gov/databreach.
- Access Free credit reports at www.AnnualCreditReport.com or by calling 1-877-322-8228.
- For your convenience, below is the contact information for the three major credit bureaus.
- Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
- Experian: 1-888-397-3742
- TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289
- If you have further questions or need assistance, please contact us at [email protected].
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