Not too long ago , the Erasmus University was a victim of a data breach . Although initial results indicated not too much sensitive information was obtained by hackers in the process , it looks as if those findings need to be revised . New data reveals that medical and financial details belonging to an undisclosed number of students were obtained during the breach . A total of 270,000 webforms residing on one particular web server were breached during the attack . Close to 5,000 forms contain student medical information , indicating their health and whether or not they suffer from specific ailments . Moreover , it also provides insights into diseases such as dyslexia , allergies , or other conditions relevant to their behavior . To make matters worse , an even larger undisclosed number of students also had financial information attached to their web forms . This includes bank account details and credit card information . However , no PIN codes or security codes are stored on the platform , which is a minor consolidation for now . A total of 17,000 students were affected by the data breach , although it is possible that the final tally will be much higher . Nearly 10,000 individuals had their nationality exposed , which should not necessarily be a grave concern . Preliminary results indicate that nearly the same number of students may suffer from identity theft in the future , due to their financial information or passport numbers being obtained by criminals . What is rather peculiar is how no passwords were part of the data breach . How that is even possible , remains everybody 's guess for the time being . More worryingly , no one knows how hackers managed to breach the server security , or what they are planning to do with the obtained information . A sale of information on the deep web is not unlikely at this stage . ;