Ohio U. Will Not Have to Pay for Computer-Security Breaches, a Judge Says

Ohio University may be turning the page on a string of high-profile hacking incidents that stung the institution last year. The university is already working its way through a thorough revamp of its beleaguered IT office, and now it appears to have dodged a lawsuit filed by two disgruntled alumni.

The suit, filed last summer, charged Ohio with negligence and asked the university to pay for credit-monitoring services for anyone whose personal information was left unprotected. But a judge with the Ohio Court of Claims dismissed the suit yesterday, ruling that the alumni hadn’t proved that they suffered any real damages from the computer-security breaches.

There’s no evidence that anyone whose personal data were exposed has been the victim of fraud or identity theft, according to campus officials. The university said in a statement that the hackers who broke into Ohio’s network were intent on storing pirated music and movie files, not on trolling for Social Security numbers. —Brock Read