Authorities discovered a computer hacking incident last Tuesday at the University of Kansas after an individual made his or her way into a file server containing records of more than 1,450 students.

The server was filled mostly with data regarding international students.

The information was collected for the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, which is used by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to monitor and track foreign students. The copied records include students’ Social Security numbers, passport numbers, countries of origin and birth dates.

According to a UK news release, a “temporary hole” in existing security protocols for the university’s SEVIS system was inadvertently created when a security update was installed recently on the Microsoft operating system. The detected “hole” in the system has since been patched to prevent other hackers from accessing this information.

Lynn Bretz, UK director of university relations, said the specific data viewed by the hacker was that of a test file created by UK in an attempt to maintain a database.

Bretz also noted that some of the information in the test file was incomplete as well as inaccurate. The file also contained information of some students who have already graduated.

“We are in the process of contacting these students,” Bretz said. “It is our No. 1 priority to assist them as well as all of our current students.”

Bretz emphasized that within hours of notifying the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an e-mail was sent out to inform students of the incident. A list serve was also established to discuss the problem along with extra precautions to take. UK is currently assisting the FBI in their attempt to identify the individual or individuals responsible for these attacks.

“We all want to see the hacker get caught,” Bretz said.

A total of five intrusions occurred between Jan. 6 and Jan. 17. The first incidents involved illegal downloads of copyrighted movies and pornography; however, the Jan. 17 incident clearly involved downloading of student-record information, according to a UK news release.

Bretz also said university officials and several computer experts indicated that they believe it is unlikely that the hacker was looking to enter the country illegally. They also don’t think the hacker’s original intent was to hack into the system to retrieve that information.

“Although serious, this incident has not affected our ability to comply with the federal mandate to maintain a SEVIS database …” UK chancellor Robert Hemenway said in a recent news release. “Our experience may serve as a warning to other universities about the potential that exists for criminal access.”

A hacking incident this serious has never been encountered at the University of Wisconsin said UW’s Division of Information Technology security consultant Stefan Wahe.

“There have been no serious hacking offenses at UW,” Wahe said. “The FBI has never been brought in to get people in trouble.”

In order to maintain a safe network for UW students, a staff of individuals works to check for patches in the server daily. DoIT maintains this service.

KU is in the process of fully correcting the problem to ensure future incidents will not occur. According to Bretz, all of the proper precautions have been taken.

“We are being vigilant in that our servers and networks are as secure as they can be,” Bretz said.