ALLENDALE, Mich. — Grand Valley State University (GVSU) students are being warned that their personal data may have become compromised due to a data breach experienced by a third-party vendor.
This data breach affects colleges and universities around the country.
GVSU sent an email to current and former students Wednesday morning, warning them that their data may have been compromised.
The third-party vendor, National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), is used by GVSU to communicate information about student enrollment to the U.S. Department of Education. The university notes that the majority of colleges in the United States use NSC to communicate student data to the education department.
NSC says that an application the vendor uses to send and receive data was the source of the breach.
GVSU says that the NSC informed them that Social Security numbers, date of birth and transcript information were not exposed in the breach.
The email was sent to all students who were listed by NSC, but says not all recipients were affected by the breach.
GVSU Associate Vice President and University Registrar, Pamela Wells, sent the email to students warning of the breach and provided some direction on what to do next if your personal data has been compromised:
"As a precautionary measure, I recommend monitoring your credit report for unusual activity," she wrote.
Information about credit monitoring can be found at this site.
"Grand Valley State University takes data security very seriously. I deeply regret any inconvenience or concern this may have caused you," wrote Wells.
Speaking to 13 ON YOUR SIDE via Zoom later Wednesday, Wells said the University was fortunate in that the scope of compromised information was limited.
"We did not have very sensitive data... breached. Other universities were not so fortunate."
She encouraged affected students and alumni with questions to come forward.
"We work really hard to protect our students data," Wells said. "In the unfortunate event that something like this happens, if people have questions, they should feel free to reach out."
The University of Michigan, responding to a Wednesday media inquiry submitted by 13 OYS, said it too had been caught-up in the leak, though the number of students affected was believed to be a small group, all of whom had been notified.
Michigan State University, which learned of the breach in July, shared news of the breach to its website. Students had been notified individually.
Anyone with questions about the GVSU breach is asked to contact the Registrar’s Office at 616-331-3327 or regdept@gvsu.edu.
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