Data incident reported at the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College

University of Hawaiʻi Maui College today is reporting a data incident that administrators became aware of in mid-February when an unauthorized third party may have gained access to the University’s computer network.

“UH Information Technology Services officials took immediate action as soon as the incident was discovered,” according to an update issued today.

According to the update, experts were engaged to investigate and determine the nature and scope of the incident, which was also reported to law enforcement.

“The intrusion was isolated to the UH Maui College network, which had been protected by a firewall and other safeguards before the event.  This event did not impact other networks in the UH System,” UH administrators advised.

Based on the investigation results, the University identified potentially-impacted files and conducted an extensive review of those files to identify any individuals who may need to be notified. UH Maui College also emailed current employees and staff alerting them to this incident and instructing them to change their passwords, UH advised.

Notification letters are being sent out to about 10,500 individuals who may have been impacted, which will include an offer of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services through Experian.

“UH and UH Maui College take the responsibility to protect the data entrusted to the university seriously,” said Garret Yoshimi, the UH Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer. “We are fully committed to protecting students’ and employees’ personal information and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or concern this may have caused.”

Additional steps affected persons may take include:

• Freezing their credit file
• Placing fraud alerts on their account or credit file
• Reviewing account statements and reporting fraud
• Changing passwords and security verification questions and answers
• Ordering free annual credit reports at www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 877-322-8228.

Current and former UH Maui College students and employees who believe they may have been affected can also call 888-493-2172 between the hours of 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Pacific Time, or 3 a.m.-3 p.m. Hawaiʻi Standard TIme Monday–Friday (excluding major US holidays).