Approximately 23,000 current and former Georgia Tech students have been notified that an electronic file containing their demographic data, such as birthdates, may have been exposed. While no Social Security or credit card numbers (the data most commonly used for identify theft) were included in this file, some of the potentially exposed information is protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

"Georgia Tech takes every breach seriously, and the security of our students' personal information is of paramount concern," said Matt Nagel, Georgia Tech spokesperson. "In this case, the information involved is not financial in nature, but it is data that we would not normally publish as directory information."

Georgia Tech is unaware of any misuse of the demographic information from the computer account, and the breach has been isolated. Immediate steps have been taken to isolate the impacted electronic file, and additional technical and administrative safeguards are under way.