Thousands of Women’s Email Accounts Hacked at University of Rhode Island

A data breach potentially compromised the usernames and passwords of predominantly female current and former students.

"We've determined that the file contains almost entirely females -- 97 percent," said Linda Acciardo, URI's communications director. Without elaborating, she called that fact "an additional concern."

The breach has potentially exposed not only school email addresses and passwords, but also personal email addresses and passwords, such as those for Facebook, Yahoo and Gmail.

The university is working with authorities investigating a related breach at an unidentified organization, an entity that tipped off URI to the whole situation. 

The other party is in New England, but not in Rhode Island.

Individuals whose accounts are believed to be affected were notified via email and snail mail on Aug. 20.