Student Loan Breach Exposes 2.5M Records

SOURCE

Now... this is news from a few months ago...

According to a breach disclosure filing submitted by Nelnet’s general counsel, Bill Munn, to the state of Maine the breach occurred sometime between June 1, 2022 and July 22, 2022. However, a letter to affected customers pinpoints the breach to July 21. The breach was discovered on August 17, 2022.

“[Our] cybersecurity team took immediate action to secure the information system, block the suspicious activity, fix the issue, and launched[sic] an investigation with third-party forensic experts to determine the nature and scope of the activity,” according to the letter.

By August 17th, the investigation determined that personal user information was accessed by an unauthorized party. That exposed information included names, home addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers for a total of 2,501,324 student loan account holders.

I find it insulting that the industry of personal "data protection" is booming, and millions of people pay monthly fees to be "protected"... meanwhile the financial industry is where the "breaches" are happening. Breaches affecting millions of people at a time - over and over... are they "protected" against that? The short answer is "no."

The article explains:

Although users’ most sensitive financial data was protected, the personal information that was accessed in the Nelnet breach “has potential to be leveraged in future social engineering and phishing campaigns,” explained Melissa Bischoping, endpoint security research specialist at Tanium, in a statement via email.

“With recent news of student loan forgiveness, it’s reasonable to expect the occasion to be used by scammers as a gateway for criminal activity,” Bischoping said...

she said the loan forgiveness program will be used to lure victims into opening up phishing emails.

She warns that recently breached data will be used to impersonate affected brands in waves of phishing campaigns targeting students and recent college graduates.

I just thought it bears mentioning that organizations who are the most egregious in their "loss" of peoples' information postured to protect themselves from liability ... even engendering a niche "protect your info" business model to false convey that individuals are targeted out of the blue... and not because of their sloppy (or is it just lazy) data management practices.

It appears to me (perhaps wrongly - but I await correction) that people need to be reminded that scammers of this ilk don't pick their targets "out of a hat." They are aware of who they target because of the data large companies like banks, insurance companies, big tech, etc. leak like a sieve.

Perhaps a poor choice of words but...

..." the loan forgiveness program will be used to lure victims into opening up phishing emails."

Not could be used.. ."will be".

Not completely off topic (I hope) but my son co-signed a loan for my grandson to finish getting his doctorate in physics two years ago. He has been contacted and told he qualifies for loan forgiveness as via being the cosigner.

This whole thing stinks. I smell gov. oversite of all money coming soon. I just got notified yesterday a fee will be added to one of my monthly bills if I don't sign up for paperless.

a reply to: nugget1

It really creeps up on you - doesn't it?

Take extra care with the loan business - it's gotten 'loose' and 'daring' (just how they like it.) For me, the alarms sound the instant I get the feeling that certain third parties are making money from "my" loan forgiveness.

(Just as a chance to mention it... this isn't forgiveness - the debt is imply transferred to another sucker ... the tax payer.)

My fear is that this was a way to verify information the IRS will be relying on in the near future. After all, the with the 'group' of forgiven have less debt now... hmmm.

a reply to: Maxmars


As all the people are saying, it's not really a data breach.
They are ...
Tidily
sweeping up
the last crumbs of
Self
Autonomy.

I was involved in a huge DOD breach of info like I dunno 8 years ago

Now I just don't care anymore

They literally All Just Play Make Believe

a reply to: nugget1

It's not soon.

It already happened.

We are all under total control ; data wise in the States.

The last 'end' of that was perhaps around 2007 or so

a reply to: chris_stibrany

Maybe it's just me - but that sounds dark enough to believe.

Unfortunately for them, what control they might achieve is all theoretical.

In the end, after the centuries have passed, people will all realize that what power any "they" might have had was all based upon make-believe. All we had to do to defeat it was wake up. No revolution necessary.

originally posted by: nugget1
This whole thing stinks. I smell gov. oversite of all money coming soon. I just got notified yesterday a fee will be added to one of my monthly bills if I don't sign up for paperless.

I got the same kind of notice from my telephone/internet provider a couple months back. They said, in order to "go green," they were going paperless. Or I could pay them $2.99 per month for them to send me my bill like they've always done. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't paper come from trees? And aren't trees a renewable and green resource? I know that the elements that go into making computers and cell-phones certainly aren't renewable or green. Who are they trying to fool?

A balloon can only hold so much air before it explodes.


TCB

originally posted by: chris_stibrany
a reply to: nugget1

It's not soon.

It already happened.

We are all under total control ; data wise in the States.

The last 'end' of that was perhaps around 2007 or so

Only thing left is the post office and physical currency. When those two go !!POOF!! , it's checkmate.

Everyone bashes the USPS not realizing that sending a hand written or typed letter is probably the last true means of private communication left aside from face to face or word of mouth.

Keep talking sh!t and eventually you literally won't be able to.

The postal service may yet be the last standing potential foil for the "group think" crowd.

The media tells you what you (and the rest of us think)

you get letters from all your friends...

Then you realize, "we really don't think that at all."