Florida Student Financial Aid Website Breach May Expose Data of 4.9 Million People

The Florida Department of Education reported unauthorized access to its Florida Student Financial Aid website, potentially exposing personal information, including Social Security numbers, belonging to approximately 4.9 million people. Staff discovered the intrusion on October 19 and activated a cybersecurity response. The department said it stopped the unauthorized activity and secured its systems, but FloridaStudentFinancialAidSG.org remained unavailable Thursday, October 29.

Officials are working with state cybersecurity and law-enforcement agencies and said financial-aid disbursements, tuition payments and aid eligibility would not be affected. The department has not disclosed when the intrusion began, how attackers gained access or when the website will be fully restored. Although one report mentioned exploitation attempts involving two PHP vulnerabilities known as PHP2Shell, officials have not linked those vulnerabilities to this breach.