Intruders hacked into the computer system at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, earlier this month, capturing names, Social Security numbers and other information about more than 30,000 students and staff, university officials say.
University officials discovered the breach on January 3rd.
The school has notified students and staff of the intrusion. University police are investigating.
Ironically, the university was in the process of removing students' social security numbers from the database, in keeping with a new state law designed to reduce the possibility of identity theft.
The GMU break-in is the latest in a series of security breaches at major universities. Last year, hackers stole information about 1.4 million people from a computer at the University of California, Berkeley. Both the University of Texas at Austin and the Georgia Institute of Technology were hit by hackers in 2003.
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