Florida Financial Aid Breach Spills SSNs of 4.9 Million Applicants
Florida's Department of Education says a breach of its Student Financial Aid website exposed names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of about 4.9 million aid applicants.
Florida’s Department of Education says a breach of its Student Financial Aid website exposed the Social Security numbers of about 4.9 million people who applied for aid in the state, The Record reports. The department learned of it on Oct. 19, took the site offline and says the incident is contained. It hasn’t said how the attackers got in or who they are.
For defenders
What was taken: names, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, gender, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, according to the department’s statement. That’s a complete identity-theft kit, and the applicant pool skews young, so many victims will have thin credit files that nobody is watching.
Status: confirmed by the Florida Department of Education, which has reported it to the state Attorney General and is working with the Florida Digital Service and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The access method, the attacker and any ransom demand are not disclosed. Other department sites may be briefly disrupted. The department says scholarships, grants, loans and disbursements aren’t affected.
Context: it lands a week after California’s education department disclosed that a contractor breach hit every public school student enrolled over three years, and a month after Florida’s DMV reported its own breach, The Record notes. Education data is clearly in demand. Expect phishing that name-drops financial aid, FAFSA or Bright Futures, timed to this news.
What it means for you
If you or your kids applied for college financial aid in Florida, assume your Social Security number is out there. Criminals use it to open credit cards, file fake tax returns or take out loans in your name, and young people often don’t find out until they apply for their first apartment or car loan. Your aid itself isn’t at risk, and you don’t need to do anything to keep receiving it. Be very suspicious of any call, text or email about your “financial aid account” that asks you to confirm details or click a link.
Do this now
- Freeze your credit, and your child’s, at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. It’s free and you can lift it when you need to.
- Get an IRS Identity Protection PIN at irs.gov so nobody can file a tax return with your SSN.
- Check the department’s breach notice at fldoe.org, and don’t trust links in unexpected messages about the breach; go to the site directly.
- Pull your free credit reports at annualcreditreport.com and look for accounts you didn’t open.