MEDIA CONTACT: Charles Loebbaka at 847-491-4887 or c-loebbaka@northwestern.edu

March 25, 2005

Hackers Access Kellogg Computer System at Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. --- A security breach has been detected in the computer server system at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Officials from Northwestern University's Information Technology Office, Kellogg Information Systems and Kellogg administration have acted to contain any risk to the Kellogg faculty, staff, students and alumni. The broader Northwestern community was not affected.

When the server problem was discovered on Sunday (March 20), the affected systems were immediately taken off-line and rebuilt. On Wednesday (March 23), Kellogg Information Systems determined that Kellogg user IDs and passwords, which provide access to various information sources on the Northwestern system, were potentially obtained by the hackers. While the University has no evidence that personal identification was accessed, Northwestern has taken the precautionary measure of disabling all passwords and user IDs for affected Kellogg School faculty and staff (approximately 500) and students (approximately 3,000). Kellogg Information Systems is also working to create new passwords for approximately 18,000 of the school's alumni whose passwords were also potentially obtained.

An investigation is ongoing and it appears that the servers were not targeted to obtain personal information. (This is similar to incidents in the last week at Boston College and Chico State University.)

Thus far, no one at Kellogg has reported any unauthorized use of their information. For more information, visit: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news/whatsnew/securitybreach.htm