Florida aid website breach may expose data of 4.9 million people

The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) has disclosed that hackers breached its FloridaStudentFinancialAidSG[.]org site, the online hub for state-funded scholarships and grants, potentially exposing personal data of about 4.9 million individuals. The intrusion was detected on 19 October, and FLDOE says it activated its incident response procedures and has since contained the breach.

The department cautions that not every affected person will have the same data exposed, but a range of information may have been accessed, including names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and gender codes.

FLDOE has not disclosed how the breach occurred or who is responsible, and no threat group has publicly claimed the attack. The Florida Digital Service and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are assisting with the response. Some related online services and websites may experience disruption as remediation continues. The department notes that current student aid disbursements, tuition payments, and eligibility for scholarships, grants and student loans remain unaffected.

The breach follows a separate September incident at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, where driver records were reported to have been stolen.