"Will the 2.5M Records Breach Impact Student Loan Relief?"

According to a recent Maine Attorney General data breach notification, more than 2.5 million student loan accounts were compromised in the summer of 2022. The breach targeted Nelnet Servicing, a servicing system and web portal provider for the Oklahoma Student Loan Authority (OSLA) and EdFinancial. An investigation determined that between June and July 2022, intruders accessed student loan account registration information, including names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers for 2,501,324 student loan account holders. The breach, according to Nelnet, did not expose users' financial information. It remains unclear how the breach occurred or who was responsible for the attack. Some are concerned about the long-term consequences of this incident for student loan recipients. President Biden announced a student loan relief plan in August 2022 that would impact millions of borrowers. The information stolen in the OSLA / Nelnet breach could be used to take advantage of the loan forgiveness plan. Actors could use the stolen emails to contact unsuspecting loan holders. Borrowers could be tricked by threat actors using social engineering or phishing scams. The schemes may also be used to gain access to bank accounts or other sensitive information. According to one study, 83 percent of surveyed organizations have experienced multiple data breaches. Furthermore, 45 percent of the incidents investigated were cloud-based. The average total cost of a data breach has risen to $4.35 million. This article continues to discuss the OSLA / Nelnet breach, the threat posed by this breach to student loan holders, credential hacking becoming a common incident faced by organizations, and how to bolster security against data breaches. 

Security Intelligence reports "Will the 2.5M Records Breach Impact Student Loan Relief?"