FGCU, NCH among several hit with data breach to donor info

Several organizations in Southwest Florida, including FGCU NCH and the Pace Center for Girls, were affected by a data breach but say no sensitive information was taken.

However, WINK News’ Safety & Security Specialist says a breach like this can have long-term consequences.

FGCU indicates critical information from donors, such as social security numbers and bank account info., was not taken in a recent cyberattack.

But what was taken is being described to us as “pieces of a puzzle.”

Specialist Rich Kolko showed us the website https://haveibeenpwned.com/. It shows you what information of yours is on the dark web and how it got there.

We walked around FGCU’s campus and asked students to search their own email addresses. Some were suprised to see the website shared past breaches personal account had been affected by.

“Identity thieves have to build a dossier, have to build an entire outlook of what that person is that they want to try and steal the money from,” Kolko said. “And they can do this piece by piece. So picking up a name, and address, a phone number, social security number, a driver’s license number.”

In this case, hackers targeted a vendor used by FGCU called Blackbaud. That company stores donor records and financial transactions, but the university is stressing that social security and bank information is not stored on the site.

“The best thing you can do though is change your password and monitor your credit reports,” Kolko said.

This cyberattack targeted hundreds of companies that use Blackbaud.

NCH says some information from their donor database was targeted, but anyone who was affected has already been contacted.

And the Pace Center for Girls says it already sent a notification to donors, and they don’t have reason to believe any information was stolen.