Blackbaud Data Security Incident

On August 3, 2020, The University of Texas at Austin informed a subset of its donors and contacts of a recent data security incident involving Blackbaud, an engagement and fundraising software provider used by more than 45,000 universities, health care organizations, nonprofits, foundations and other organizations worldwide, including UT Austin. Our university development office uses services provided by Blackbaud to support our fundraising efforts.

On July 24, Blackbaud confirmed that data from UT Austin was part of the breach. Publicly available information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, emails and birthdays may have been accessed. No credit card information, bank information, or Social Security numbers were accessed by the cybercriminal or compromised. Moreover, the UT development office does not store such data.

Blackbaud discovered and stopped this ransomware attack in May. Blackbaud worked with security experts and law enforcement to respond to the ransom threat and reports to have received confirmation that the stolen data was destroyed and not used by the cybercriminal.

Based on the nature of the incident, the research Blackbaud performed, and its third-party investigators, Blackbaud has no reason to believe that any data went beyond the cybercriminal, or that the data has been misused or disseminated publicly. Blackbaud has also hired a third-party team of experts to continue monitoring for any such activity. For additional information about Blackbaud’s response, please visit blackbaud.com/securityincident.

The university takes the protection and proper use of your information very seriously and is contacting you only as a precautionary measure. As a best practice, we recommend that you remain vigilant and promptly report any suspicious online or financial activity to the proper law enforcement authorities.

We value your trust in the university and sincerely apologize for any concern or inconvenience this incident may have caused. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us at questions@giving.utexas.edu with any questions or concerns you may have.