A computer hacker broke into a UC Berkeley computer containing more than one million records of California residents, prompting federal agencies to launch an ongoing investigation into the incident, state officials said.
“We don?t know if the data has been accessed or compromised,? said Carlos Ramos, assistant secretary for the Health and Human Services Agency. ?We don?t know that the person or hacker got to the data.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and state agencies are probing into the breach, but have not yet found the hacker.

The database included about 1.4 million recipients of the In-Home Supportive Services program, a federal and state-funded program meant to assist elderly and disabled individuals at home.

The hacker could have found home addresses, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers on the database.

The information could potentially be used for identity theft or credit card fraud, Ramos said.

more from [url=http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=16605]The daily californian[/url]

---

Filed under: Security - @ October 20, 2004 11:22 pm