Thousands of Stanford students, professors and staff woke up Thursday to a warning to change their passwords, after hackers apparently broke into the school’s computer system and stole sensitive data.

The Stanford Daily reports Stanford is working with security consultants and law enforcement agencies to determine the extent of the attack. A notice on the university’s login page asks people to change their password as a “precautionary measure.”

In a school-wide letter, Stanford Vice President of Business Affairs Randy Livingston said it doesn’t appear the hackers were able to access Social Security numbers, health records or financial data.

“Stanford treats information security with the utmost seriousness and is continually upgrading its defenses against cyberattacks,” Livington wrote. “Like many institutions, it repels millions of attempted attacks on its information systems each day.”

Earlier this month, the New York Times reported the nation’s research universities get hammered by hackers every day. Many of those attacks are believed to originate in China.

Source:BizJournals