Florida student aid breach may expose 4.9 million people

The Florida Department of Education discovered the breach on Oct. 19 and has contained it, according to the agency. The incident affected FloridaStudentFinancialAidSG.org, the online hub for the state’s scholarship and grant programs.

People who applied for financial aid in Florida in the past may be among those affected. The data potentially accessed includes names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and gender codes. The information involved may vary by person, and the department cautioned that not everyone was affected.

“At this time, we believe the incident was limited to the Florida Student Financial Aid website … and may have impacted approximately 4.9 million individuals,” the department said.

The department has not disclosed how the attackers accessed the website or who was responsible. No threat group has publicly claimed the attack. The Florida Digital Service and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are assisting with the investigation and response.

Some department websites and online services may remain disrupted while remediation work continues. Existing student aid remains safe, and the breach will not delay disbursements or tuition payments, according to the department. It will not affect eligibility for scholarships, grants or student loans.

The breach follows a September incident at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The agency confirmed that hackers accessed its driver database after the ShinyHunters extortion group claimed to have stolen more than 200,000 driver records. The agency traced the intrusion to compromised credentials belonging to a user at a local police department but did not identify ShinyHunters as responsible.