UCF first realized there was a problem in early January but didn’t announce the hack publicly until nearly a month later as it worked with authorities and experts to determine the details of what happened, officials said.

Among those affected are about 600 current student-athletes, former student-athletes who last played sports in 2014-15, student staff managers for the teams and other related positions.

The rest are current UCF employees as well as those who worked at UCF as far back as the 1980s.

Those positions affected include undergraduate student employees (including those in work-study jobs); graduate assistants; housing resident assistants; adjunct faculty instructors; student government leaders and faculty members who were paid for teaching additional classes, according to the university.

The case reveals just how savvy hackers have become at stealing data and how such attacks are the new reality for schools, governments and others, said Von Welch, director of Indiana University’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research.

“It’s an extremely hard situation for folks like UCF to be in,” Welch said. “They have the large databases … All it takes is one mistake for hackers to exploit. If you’re anything less than perfect, these hacks can occur.”

Source – http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-ucf-data-hack-students-20160204-story.html