Hacker Attack at UC Campus Probed

Federal and state authorities are investigating a computer hacker attack that could have garnered personal information on 600,000 or more Californians involved in a home-care program for seniors and the disabled.

Officials, however, said Thursday that they had uncovered no evidence that the attack on a UC Berkeley computer system led to the theft or illegal use of personal information.

The computer has names, addresses, Social Security numbers, telephone numbers and dates of birth for recipients and providers with the state’s In-Home Supportive Services program.

The personal information, which came from the social services department of the state’s Health and Human Services Agency, was being used in research by Candace Howes, a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Industrial Relations who has studied job turnover trends among home-care workers.

Howes, who also is an associate professor of economics at Connecticut College, could not be reached for comment.

The FBI is investigating the computer breach with assistance from the California Department of Social Services and the California Highway Patrol.

The hacker attack was the latest in a series of computer security breakdowns to hit California’s public universities.

In June, the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center started notifying about 145,000 donors that they could be victims of identity theft because a laptop computer containing their personal data was stolen.

UC Davis, UC San Diego and San Diego State also experienced computer security lapses over the last year.

“We understand how important anyone’s personal information is, but we live in a high-tech age in which [hackers] are always testing security systems. This is a situation where our security systems weren’t up to the task,” said George A. Strait Jr., a UC Berkeley spokesman.

In the latest incident, officials differed on the potential number of people whose information was exposed.

Strait said the records of no more than 600,000 people were involved.

But Carlos Ramos, assistant secretary with the California Health and Human Services Agency, said the number could be close to 1.4 million, depending on how many records involved were duplicates.

The social services department is urging In-Home Supportive Services participants to watch for unauthorized charges on their credit cards and consider placing a fraud alert on their accounts by contacting one of the three major credit reporting agencies: Trans Union (800) 680-7289, Experian (888) 397-3742, or Equifax (800) 525-6285. More information is available at www.cdss.ca.gov/ihss.

The social services department can be reached at (866) 404-9214. For the hearing-impaired, the TTY number is (800) 952-8349.