UNT officials say computer systems hacked

Nearly 39,000 current, former and prospective students were exposed to possible identify theft after hackers broke into computer systems at the University of North Texas, school officials said Monday.

Though there was no indication that any information had been stolen, school officials said the hackers may have had access to names, phone and Social Security numbers, student IDs and passwords, as well as 524 credit card numbers.

In all, the hackers accessed a server containing 38,607 housing records dating back to 1999.

The school was encouraging anyone who feels they may be at risk to protect against identity theft.

The school set up a Web site with more information, http://www.securityid.unt.edu, as well as an Internet security hot line, (866) 868-5323.

UNT said it blocked access to the server upon learning of the hackers, and was checking to make sure no other files were vulnerable to unauthorized access.