PORT ANGELES – Officials at Peninsula College announced Thursday that two vendors notified them of a cybersecurity breach that may have exposed the personal information of current students and employees.
At issue is the filesharing application MOVEit Transfer used by hundreds of businesses and organizations worldwide. While the college doesn’t use the MOVEit software, the two vendors, National Student Clearinghouse and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, do.
The college has set up a website with more information on the incident, which will update as more details become available.
The college expects both organizations will contact impacted individuals directly, as required by law, though the timeline of that notification is not known.
Peninsula College is sending this message to inform students and employees so they can take steps to keep their identity as secure as possible. Any members of the PC community who believe their personal information may have been compromised are advised to follow the recommendations of the Federal Trade Commission:
- Closely monitor your credit reports.
- You can obtain a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies; Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
- Place a fraud alert on your accounts.
- A fraud alert tells creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts or before making changes to existing accounts. You can place a fraud alert by contacting one of the three credit reporting agencies. A fraud alert at one of the agencies will automatically notify the other two services.
- Freeze your credit at each of the three major credit reporting agencies.
- If you believe you are the victim of identity theft, file a police report and notify the Federal Trade Commission at www.identitytheft.gov.
- Block electronic access to your Social Security information.
- Contact the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213 to block electronic access. This will prevent anyone from being able to see or change your personal information on the internet or by the administration’s automated telephone service.
PBI will send affected individuals a letter by mail in the coming weeks offering free credit monitoring for two years at no cost to them.