Some personal information belonging to Michigan State University students and employees may have been exposed through a wide-ranging data breach.
Two of the university’s vendors recently notified the school that information they stored may have been part of a leak.
Dan Olsen is a spokesperson for MSU. He says the National Student Clearinghouse and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association are third-party providers for the university.
“We've sent out inquiries to both organizations to determine the extent of the exposure so that we can best protect those members of our campus community," he said.
The National Student Clearinghouse is an organization institution offering educational reporting, data exchange, verification and research services to thousands of higher education institutions across the country including MSU. The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association manages the retirement benefit services to colleges and universities.
Both vendors used a file transfer software called MOVEit. In May, the company maintaining the software announced the program had allowed hackers to access stored information, potentially exposing the data of millions of people.
Olsen says they don't yet know how many members of the MSU community have been impacted.
"Both organizations have assured us that they would reach out to impacted individuals to share information that may have been exposed, as well as provide additional support and resources for them," he said.
The investigation on the breach is still pending and the National Student Clearinghouse and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association have said once the investigation is complete they will notify those affected.
