Illinois University Under Fire for Computer Data Breach

Some 9,000 students of Eastern Illinois University from the year 2000 onward are at risk for identity theft after the Virut virus left the university’s network vulnerable to personal attacks.

After finding the virus and the files it effected, it appears as though an unknown person had access to the files for almost a week in November. Although there have been no reports of the information being misused, the Eastern Illinois University is notifying students by letter of various safety precautions they can partake in to protect their personal information in addition to the free credit monitoring offered by the university for identity theft protection.

In the meantime, investigation is underway to determine who accessed the computer and if their intents were malicious.