Chinese-Originated Hack Potentially Compromised UConn Research and Personal Data

University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering was the victim of a network intrusion that could have been going on for almost a year and a half.

In March, UConn's information technology department first detected malware on a number of servers that are part of the school's technical infrastructure.

The university immediately took the engineering school’s servers offline.

According to UConn Today, the malware “potentially compromised data residing on these servers, including sensitive information pertaining to research and individual communications.”

When the school first noticed something amiss on the network in March, all faculty and staff at the School of Engineering were told their log-in credentials may be been compromised and were advised to change their passwords.

Now, the school is notifying about 200 research sponsors in government and industry, as well as determining how many other individuals need to be notified about a potential compromise of personal information, like credit card data and Social Security numbers, according to UConn Today.

University IT specialists have no direct evidence that any data was exfiltrated, but they believe that personal information might have been "compromised,” according to the university.