Associated Press HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii will provide two years of credit protection services to settle a class-action lawsuit involving data breaches involving nearly 100,000 students, faculty, alumni and staff between 2009 and 2011, officials and attorneys announced
Associated Press
HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii will provide two years of credit protection services to settle a class-action lawsuit involving data breaches involving nearly 100,000 students, faculty, alumni and staff between 2009 and 2011, officials and attorneys announced Thursday.
The university, which has denied liability for the breaches, said it will settle the case by providing two years of credit monitoring and credit restoration services to class members who request it. The university said it will continue to “work diligently so that the chance of future data breaches is significantly reduced.”
There were five data breaches, including one in 2009 where Social Security numbers, grades and other personal information were posted online for nearly a year before being removed. University officials said a faculty member inadvertently uploaded files containing the information to an unprotected server, exposing the names, academic performance, disabilities and other information of more than 40,000 students who attended the flagship Manoa campus from 1990 to 1998 and in 2001.
There were also breaches at the West Oahu campus, Kapiolani Community College and Honolulu Community College.
Thomas Grande, one of the Honolulu attorneys representing the class, called the settlement historic.
“First, this is the largest class case filed or settled in Hawaii,” he said. “It also is the first data breach settlement in Hawaii.”
The settlement is still subject to court approval. It will be administered by Kroll Background America Inc., a company that specializes in providing credit monitoring and fraud restoration services. Class members will be sent letters by March allowing them to sign up for the services online. University faculty, students and alumni will receive emails informing them of the credit monitoring services.
