Stratford University Announces Data Breach as It Closes Shop

Stratford University, a private university in the US state of Virginia, has issued a data breach notice informing  students and employees that hackers have their data and might use it for fraud.

Founded in 1976, Stratford delivered online, classroom and blended online/classroom programs before closing at the end of the Fall 2022 semester after losing its accreditation.

Databreaches.net reports that the school was the target of several ransomware attacks in 2022. It isn’t clear which incident Stratford is addressing in its data breach notice, but according to the statement – updated last week – the data theft occurred around August.

“On or about August 27, 2022, we detected a cyber incident impacting our systems,” reads he notice. “We launched an investigation into the incident with the assistance of third-party independent cybersecurity experts. We concluded our initial investigation and determined that on or about August 26, 2022, an unauthorized individual accessed our systems and, as a result, obtained some data, including information containing employee and student information.”

The institution is now informing telling parties that their privacy and security may be at risk, and offering instructions on how to protect themselves “should they feel it appropriate to do so.”

The information involved includes first and last name, phone number, address, email address, date of birth, student identification number, passport number and Social Security number.

Stratford is instructing impacted individuals to monitor their bank statements and keep an eye out for suspicious credit statements. It does not warn potential victims that hackers may – and likely will – use the stolen data to conduct social engineering attacks, like phishing.

Stratford is no longer in operation after losing its institutional accreditor which, coincidentally, also took place in August of 2022. The full announcement can be read at https://www.stratford.edu/.

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