Nearly 664 IU login passwords ‘seized’ on computer

Nearly 664 IU computer users, more than half of them students, had their passwords “scrambled” June 2 after IU officials were notified by the FBI that usernames and passwords were found on an unknown computer and seized.\nIU Chief Information Technology Policy Officer, Merri Beth Lavagnino, said that since then, IU has been assisting the affected individuals to secure their systems and change their passwords. Nearly half of the affected individuals have been helped. \nOf those affected, 511 are students, 151 are hourly employees and the rest are faculty or professional staff. When these individuals began to notice their passwords to their account systems did not work, they contacted the support center where they were then walked through the process to unscramble their passwords and fix their accounts.\nThe FBI informed IU officials when it was discovered the passwords and usernames were “stolen” using a Trojan horse known as Vanquish, Lavagnino said. She said that this type of the Trojan is a “pretty bad one” because it collects user names and passwords. The location of where the computer that the FBI seized is still unknown, Lavagnino said. \nMost of the individuals affected were users that had not recently changed their passwords, Lavagnino said. Now passwords are being changed to prevent a future scenario from happening again.\nIn addition to updating and changing passwords, Lavagnino said other prevention methods include keeping up to date with operating systems, installing an anti-virus program to recognize new viruses and running computer programs as “user” instead of “administrator” because operating under administrator rights allows anyone who uses the computer to change things. \nWhile it is unknown how long it will take before all affected accounts are taken care of and unscrambled, Lavagnino said they are halfway through the process and are keeping an eye on the situation. In a few weeks, IU officials will reevaluate the situation and see what the next steps are, she said.