OSU’s Veterinary Medical Center in Dublin. Despite falling short of revenue projections last year, some say the business is doing fine, with an increased focus on advertising. Credit: Chahinaz Seghiri / Lantern reporter

Ohio State’s Veterinary Medical Center at Dublin was hit with a malware infection that potentially placed into danger the personal information of 4,611 clients. 
Credit: Lantern File Photo

A malware infection is to blame for a security breach that could put the personal information of up to 4,611 clients of the Ohio State Veterinary Medical Center at Dublin in jeopardy.

Clients were alerted of the possible threat that could put their bank account information, credit card numbers, driver’s license and their social security numbers at risk, but OSU spokesman Ben Johnson said in a statement that there is “no current evidence that confidential information was viewed or removed from the server.”

Additionally, the credit card service provider that the VMC-Dublin uses has not reported any fraudulent activity linked to this incident.

Johnson declined to comment on the origin of the security breach, but did say that he did not think it was “a targeted attack.”

In response to the data breach, Ohio State rebuilt the server at the Dublin Location and is offering all clients one year of identity theft protection free of charge through third party identity protection firm Allclear ID.

“Out of an abundance of caution and respect for our clients, we have contacted all individuals whose personal information was stored on the server,” said Johnson.  “We have improved business and financial transactions, increased training, and taken other steps to improve the security of our institutional data.”

Johnson also said the Dublin center was the only location impacted by the breach, and no other university servers were affected.