Hackers have stolen the personal information of  students, faculty, staff and alumni from the University of Maryland. The university says hackers seized Social Security numbers of 309,079 people, and the cause of the security breach is under investigation.

WAMU’s Chris Chester reports:

The database that was hacked also included names, dates of birth and University identification numbers of anyone who has been issued a University ID since 1998, according to a letter from University President Wallace Loh. Financial, academic, health and contact information was not compromised.

Last week, WGBH’s On Campus reported security experts are increasingly concerned future cyber attacks are likely to come through college and university networks that tend to have big, broad Internet pipes, with less protection.