Skagit Valley College has been notified by two vendors of a cybersecurity incident that may have exposed personally identifiable information of current students as well as employees.

The incident revolves around the filesharing application MOVEit Transfer, which is used by hundreds of businesses and organizations globally. It’s important to note that Skagit Valley College itself does not utilize the MOVEit software; however, two of its vendors do, and they have informed the college about the potential exposure of personally identifiable information.

The two vendors that have communicated with Skagit Valley College are the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA).

SVC has various contracts with NSC, involving services such as enrollment and degree verification, as well as student loan reporting requirements. NSC, a nonprofit organization, offers educational reporting, data exchange, and verification services to over 3,600 colleges and universities across the United States. As part of these services, personally identifiable information and student education records are provided to NSC.

For additional information about the incident, you can visit NSC’s website.

TIAA provides financial services to employees in academic, research, medical, government, and cultural fields nationwide. Skagit Valley College shares personally identifiable information of its employees who use TIAA’s services. Fortunately, the data transferred from the college to TIAA was not compromised in this incident. However, TIAA has mentioned that one of its vendors, Pension Benefit Information, LLC, has been affected.

For further details, you can contact TIAA’s National Contact Center at 1-800-842-2252.

SVC expects that NSC and Pension Benefit Information, LLC, will directly contact the individuals impacted by this incident, as required by law. The exact timeline of this notification process is currently unknown.

This message is being sent by SVC to inform students and employees so they can take necessary precautions to secure their identities. If any members of the college community suspect that their personal information may have been compromised, it is advised to follow the recommendations of the Federal Trade Commission:

Pension Benefit Information, LLC, will be sending affected individuals a letter by mail in the coming weeks, offering free credit monitoring for two years at no cost to them.

For more information, visit alert.studentclearinghouse.org. If you believe you are the victim of identity theft, file a police report and notify the Federal Trade Commission at www.identitytheft.gov.