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Oregon State University officials announced Friday that a cyberattack had exposed the data of 636 students, prospective students and family members to hackers.

Steve Clark, vice president for university relations and marketing for OSU, said a university employee’s email account was hacked in early May. He said the purpose of the initial attack appears to have been to phish for information from people by sending them emails that appeared to be from the university. However, he said, a forensic review revealed that the names, birthdates, Social Security numbers and other personal information for students, prospective students and their family members also were accessible through the university employee's account.

“OSU is continuing to investigate this matter and determine whether the cyberattacker viewed or copied these documents with personal information,” Clark said. “While we have no indication at this time that the personal information was seen or used, OSU has notified these students and family members of this incident. And we have offered information about support services that are available, including 12 months of credit monitoring services that the university will enable at no cost.”