On April 5, 2023, Prescott College filed a notice of data breach with the Attorney General of Maine after the school learned that an unauthorized party had gained access to and removed certain files that were stored on its computer system. Based on the company’s official filing, the files contained highly sensitive information belonging to certain students and others associated with Prescott College. After confirming that consumer data was leaked, Prescott began sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals who were impacted by the recent data security incident.
If you received a data breach notification from Prescott College, it is essential you understand what is at risk and what you can do about it. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, hackers carry out data breaches in hopes of stealing sensitive information they can use to commit fraud. As a result, data breach victims have a high-than-normal chance of falling victim to identity theft and other frauds. To learn more about how to protect yourself from becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft and what your legal options are in the wake of the Prescott College data breach, please see our recent piece on the topic here.
What We Know So Far About the Prescott College Breach
News of the Prescott College data breach is still fresh; however, what we know at this point comes from the company’s filing with the Attorney General of Maine. According to this source, Prescott College recently detected suspicious activity within its IT system. In response, the institution secured its system, altered law enforcement and began working with cybersecurity professionals to investigate the incident and determine what, if any, student or employee data was compromised.
The Prescott College investigation confirmed that the unauthorized party had indeed gained access to its computer system on October 26, 2022, until the college terminated access on October 29, 2022. The investigation also revealed that some of the files that were accessible to the unauthorized party contained confidential information that had been stored on its computer system.
Upon discovering that sensitive consumer data was made available to an unauthorized party, Prescott College began to review the affected files to determine what information was compromised and which consumers were impacted. The school completed this process on March 9, 2023. While the breached information varies depending on the individual, it may include your name, driver’s license number and potentially other sensitive data.
On April 5, 2023, Prescott College sent out data breach letters to all individuals whose information was compromised as a result of the recent data security incident.
More Information About Prescott College
Founded in 1966, Prescott College is a private four-year college located in Prescott, Arizona. Prescott College offers four types of general degree programs, including the Resident Undergraduate Program, the Limited-Residency Undergraduate Program, the Resident Masters and Limited-Residency Masters Program, and the Limited-Residency Ph.D. program in Sustainability Education. The school has a current student body of approximately 840 students. Prescott College employs more than 135 people and generates approximately $15 million in annual revenue.
