Florida confirms 4.9 million Social Security numbers may be exposed
The Florida Department of Education says an unauthorized party accessed the Florida Student Financial Aid website, potentially exposing data of about 4.9 million people who applied for aid in the state, including Social Security numbers. The intrusion was found on October 19; the site was taken offline, the incident is contained, and no attackers have been identified. Those affected should monitor credit reports and accounts and consider a fraud alert or credit freeze.
What happened
The Florida Department of Education says an unauthorized party accessed the state's student financial aid website. Data of about 4.9 million people who applied for aid may be exposed, including Social Security numbers. The intrusion was found on October 19 and is contained.
Why it matters
Social Security numbers, names, birth dates, addresses and contacts may be in criminal hands, enabling identity theft and financial fraud. The Record reports this is the second large Florida government breach this year. The department says aid, tuition payments and eligibility are not affected.
What to do
If employees or customers applied for student aid in Florida, advise credit report and account monitoring, a fraud alert or a credit freeze. Check dependencies on state online services, which may face temporary disruptions.
For the technical team
- Affected
- Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) Florida Student Financial Aid, site estadual de auxílio financeiro estudantil · Florida Student Financial Aid website (FloridaStudentFinancialAidSG.org). Anyone who applied for financial aid in the state in the past may be among the roughly 4.9 million potentially affected. FLDOE says not all individuals were necessarily affected and the data involved varies by person.
- Exploitation
- Incident contained and website taken offline, according to FLDOE. No threat group has publicly claimed the attack, according to SecurityWeek; attackers and vector unidentified.
- Fix
- No software fix. Website taken offline; FLDOE warns other department websites and services may face temporary disruptions during remediation.
- Vector
- Unauthorized party access to FloridaStudentFinancialAidSG.org, the online hub for Florida's state-funded scholarship and grant programs. FLDOE has not disclosed how the attackers got in.
- More details
- Discovered on October 19; response with the Florida Digital Service and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement; reported to the Office of the Attorney General. Data possibly accessed: names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and gender codes. Context cited by SecurityWeek: in September, FLHSMV confirmed access to its driver database after the ShinyHunters group claimed theft of more than 200,000 records; the agency traced the intrusion to compromised credentials of a local police department user.
Timeline
Florida's Department of Education confirms Social Security numbers and other personal data may have been exposed in the financial aid website breach.
Florida Department of Education details the types of data exposed and says the breach was discovered on October 19.
Incident opened.
Sources 3 sources
- Florida warns that 4.9 million people had Social Security numbers leaked in financial aid site breach The Record
- @DarkWebInformer @DarkWebInformer
- Florida Student Aid Website Hack Puts Data of 4.9 Million People at Risk SecurityWeek
