On December 15, 2022, Hope College reported a data breach with the Montana Attorney General after the school determined that an unauthorized party had gained access to files containing confidential student information. According to Hope College, the breach resulted in students’ first and last names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and student ID numbers being compromised. Recently, Hope College sent out data breach letters to all affected parties, informing them of the incident and what they can do to protect themselves from identity theft and other frauds.
If you are a current or former student at Hope College and you received a “Notice of Data Security Incident” letter from the college, hackers may be planning on using your information to commit identity theft or fraud. As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, the risks that follow in the wake of a data breach should not be ignored. By some accounts, it can take up to six months and cost thousands of dollars to remedy the effects of identity theft. Therefore, as a data breach victim, it is important that you understand what you can do to protect yourself as well as what rights you have to pursue a legal claim against the organization that leaked your data.
What We Know About the Hope College Data Breach
The available information regarding the Hope College breach comes from the company’s filing with the Attorney General of Montana. According to this source, on around September 27, 2022, Hope College determined that an unauthorized party may have gained access to its computer network. While the school did not elaborate on how it came to this realization, in response, Hope College enlisted the assistance of outside cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident and determine what, if any, student and faculty information was leaked as a result.
The school’s investigation confirmed that an unauthorized party had gained access to its computer network, including certain files containing confidential student information.
Upon discovering that sensitive consumer data was made available to an unauthorized party, Hope College began to review the affected files to determine what information was compromised and which consumers were impacted. Hope College completed this process on November 8, 2022. While the breached information varies depending on the individual, it may include your first and last name, date of birth, Social Security number, driver’s license number, and student ID number.
On December 15, 2022, Hope College sent out data breach letters to all individuals whose information was compromised as a result of the recent data security incident.
Founded in 1866, Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college located in Holland, Michigan. The school offers 91 majors, minors and pre-professional programs and more than 300 study-abroad programs for students. The school’s courses all fall within one of five disciplines: general education, arts and humanities, natural and applied sciences, social sciences, and pre-health programs. Currently, Hope College’s enrollment is approximately 3,400. Hope College employs more than 586 people and generates approximately $43 million in annual revenue.
