Georgia Tech Notifies Community of Security Incident

ATLANTA, May 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) has identified and addressed a security incident involving personal information related to current and former faculty, staff, students, alumni, student applicants and affiliates. 

Georgia Tech is notifying 1.265 million people and offering credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to individuals whose Social Security number was involved in the incident.

In late March 2019, Georgia Tech identified signs that an unauthorized person had found a way to send queries through a Georgia Tech web server to an internal database.  Georgia Tech immediately implemented its incident response protocol, took steps to secure the web server and began an investigation to determine what records in the database were accessed.  The U.S. Department of Education was notified, and Georgia Tech set up a dedicated website on April 2, 2019, to share its preliminary findings. 

Leading forensic firms were engaged to assist in the investigation and help determine the specific information that was accessed.  The investigation determined that access to the database may have occurred between December 14, 2018, and March 22, 2019.  The information contained in the database that may have been accessed includes name, address, Institute ID, date of birth and Social Security number. Not every record in the database contained a Social Security number – the data that was present in a record varied depending on information provided by individuals as part of their relationship to Georgia Tech (i.e., student, faculty, staff, alumni, applicant, affiliate).  For individuals who have questions, Georgia Tech has established a dedicated call center where individuals may receive accurate and reliable information regarding the incident.

"We regret that this incident occurred and apologize for any inconvenience," said Jim Fortner, interim executive vice president for administration and finance. "To help prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future, Georgia Tech is taking steps to enhance existing security measures."

Anyone with questions regarding this incident, should visit http://notice.gatech.edu or call 855-543-5399, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Eastern Time.  

SOURCE Georgia Tech