Penn State warns of computer privacy breach

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Nearly 30,000 individuals associated with Penn State may have had their Social Security numbers exposed because of privacy breaches caused by infected university computers, school officials said Tuesday.

A school spokeswoman said there is no evidence the information has been accessed by unauthorized parties, but that the university is notifying individuals as a precaution that their information is on an infected computer. It was not immediately clear whether the affected individuals were all students.

The school announced Dec. 23 that the computers have been hit by so-called “malware,” or malicious software.

Spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz said that as of Tuesday, about 7,700 individuals have been contacted due to computer problems at the Eberly College of Science, with another 6,800 at the College of Health and Human Development.