CA University Leaks Student, Staff Data

California State University, Chico is informing students and staff that as many as 59,000 may have had their personal information accessed after a hacker broke into the school's computer systems. According to a school spokesperson, "a great deal of information" was compromised, as well as some of the files possibly being downloaded.

"We still have no indication that the information was used for anything other than somebody wanting to have illegal access to this server," spokesperson Joe Wills said. "Typically, on a college campus that can be to download files, music and games."

The school vows to investigate the break-in fully, but at this point has had no luck tracking down a perpetrator.

California State University joins a growing list of organizations to have leaked private customer data, including names, social security numbers and even credit card details.

ChoicePoint acknowledged in February that 145,000 of its customers may have had their personal information stolen, which resulted in 750 reports of identity theft in California alone. LexisNexis said this month that data from 32,000 customers may have been compromised.

The recent influx of identity theft reports has led the United States Congress to call for regulation to limit the amount of data agencies can collect without federal oversight. Several Democratic lawmakers said they are preparing to introduce legislation to limit the activities of data profilers like ChoicePoint.