Man reports data breach at YSU Foundation to Boardman police
Boardman police are investigating a report that checking and personal information was stolen from YSU Foundation donors.
A police report from Feb. 16 stated that a man who stated that he discovered that $5,500 was taken from his online First National Bank checking account balance.
According to the man, he went to his bank and was told that his identity was used to make a fraud ID and that was used to make a withdrawal at the Norfolk branch of First National Bank in North Carolina.
In the report, the man said he was handed a letter from the Youngstown State University Foundation stating that they had a breach in their system which led to access to the personal information of donors.
YSU Foundation confirmed the report in a press release Monday night.
On February 2, 2024, DonorPerfect, a web-based fundraising software, with which the YSU Foundation (YSU Foundation) contracts, notified YSU Foundation management that it had discovered suspicious activity related to a subsection of its hosted file storage,” the release stated. “Once made aware of the data security incident that occurred at DonorPerfect, the YSU Foundation immediately notified those possibly affected through letters. At the YSU Foundation, we take the privacy and security of personal information very seriously.”
YSU Foundation President Paul McFadden told Mahoning Matters Monday night that the breach impacted donors from a month or two, but was traveling and didn’t immeadiately have information on which months were impacted.
“DonorPerfect immediately took steps to identify, contain, and remediate the issue, including locking down their systems and strengthening numerous security protocols,” the release said. “As soon as DonorPerfect discovered the incident, they took the steps described above and implemented measures to enhance network security and minimize the risk of a similar incident occurring in the future. They also notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement and will continue to cooperate with them in any investigations to hold the perpetrator accountable.
“DonorPerfect has arranged to provide credit monitoring services through IDX, a leader in consumer identity protection, to anyone affected. These services include 12 months of credit monitoring, identity protection through CyberScan, a $1 million identity fraud loss reimbursement policy, and fully managed identity theft recovery services.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2024 at 5:03 PM.