IT Security Stories to Watch: Harvard University Data Breach

Several Harvard University networks recently were breached.

And as a result, Harvard tops this week’s list of IT security news makers to watch, followed by FireKeepers Casino, Orlando Health, and the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).

What can managed service providers (MSPs) and their customers learn from these IT security news makers? Check out this week’s list of IT security stories to watch to find out:

1. Harvard gets hacked

Harvard last week released details about an intrusion on its Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Central Administration information technology networks. However, Harvard noted that faculty and student personal data, research data or PIN system credentials were not compromised during the incident.

“At this time, we have no indication that personal data, research data or PIN system credentials have been exposed,” the school wrote in a cyber alert. “It is possible that Harvard login credentials (username and password) used to access individual computers and university email accounts have been exposed.“

School officials said the data breach was discovered on June 19. In addition, Harvard has been working with external information security experts and federal law enforcement to investigate the incident, protect the information stored on its systems and strengthen its IT environments.

2. Orlando Health notifies patients about data breach

Roughly 3,200 Orlando Health patient records were compromised in a data breach.

Orlando Sentinel reported that Orlando Health discovered the data breach on May 27 and began notifying patients about the incident last week.

There was no evidence that the data compromised during the incident was copied or used illegally, Orlando Health said, but the hospital system reported the incident in accordance with its data breach policies.

3. 85k credit and debit cards compromised during FireKeepers data breach

Thousands of credit and debit cards may have been stolen during the May 2015 FireKeepers data breach.

Casino officials last week said approximately 85,000 credit and debit cards used between Sept. 7, 2014 and April 25, 2015 for food, beverage and retail purchases may have been affected by the breach.

FireKeepers is offering free credit monitoring and identity protection services, WOOD TV8 reported.

4. ITRC: Record number of data breaches possible this year

ITRC reported that 2015 could be a record-breaking year for data breaches, according to Credit Union Times.

The nonprofit identity theft organization said data breaches in 2015 are on pace to break records both in the number of breaches and records exposed.

As of June 30, ITRC reported 400 data breaches this year. Also, ITRC noted that nearly 117.6 million records have been compromised in 2015 due to data breaches.

What are your thoughts on this week’s IT security stories to watch? Share your thoughts about this story in the Comments section below, via Twitter @dkobialka or email me at [email protected].