Data breach at Ohlone College compromises students', staff personal information

FREMONT, Calif. - The Ohlone Community College District is confirming that many of its staff and students are getting assistance in case identity thieves and other criminals try to take advantage of them following a data breach. 

Since January 20, the District says it has "experienced a network disruption" that does not allow access to certain files on its network. In other words, it appears that Ohlone was hacked and the data of current and former students and staff was compromised.

That includes massive amounts of personal information, which likely includes names, date of birth, student ID numbers, Social Security numbers, U.S. alien registration number, race and ethnicity, driver’s license numbers, financial account numbers, routing numbers, financial institution name, medical information, health insurance information, class list, course schedule, grades, transcripts and disciplinary files.

This is pretty much everything required to steal someone's identity and commit everything from financial fraud to out-and-out extortion.

Off camera, a student confirmed that there is an ongoing problem not yet resolved. Averroes High School, is a partner with Ohlone College. "We also enroll in college classes here. So we would like go to our classes would be like, 'our WiFi is out.' So, Ohlone classes were canceled for like a week or two weeks I think," said Averroes High School Student Safa Mohamme

It's been a long haul hack requiring students using their own phones to do internet research. "It's been a couple weeks and, you know, we're not able to like access anything. We go to school. We access the hotspots," said Ms. Mohamme.

SEE ALSO: Hacker who sold data of 65K medical employees on dark web gets 7 years

The Ohlone District says, though it has "no evidence of misuse of information, in an abundance of caution, we are offering potentially impacted individuals access to free credit monitoring and identity protection services."

"I hope that our passwords and encryption are good enough. But, my mom has been getting stuff about her credit cards. She had a Walmart transaction that she never did and it's making me think maybe that's the reason," said Mohamme.

The College did say that a ransom demand was made, but no ransom was paid. Police and cyber experts are assisting the college.