PhysicalEducationEducationLossEmployee Data InvolvedIdentity (basic)Government IDEducationMediumResolved

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

bd_7b12e5e380e420fc · schema v1 · pii pii-v1

Severity

Medium

Discovered

Oct 1, 2021

Filed

Dec 22, 2021

To disclose

12 weeks

Affected

Not disclosed

Linked

7 filings

Confidence

64%

Full breach record for UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA →3 incidents on file

University of Southern California (USC) notified the California Attorney General of a data breach involving the loss of an external hard drive by a professor on September 28, 2021. USC discovered the loss on October 1, 2021. The drive contained student academic information, including grade sheets, names, and Social Security numbers. USC investigated and reviewed backups, determined no evidence of misuse, and offered identity monitoring services to affected individuals.

J jump to incidentP pin to compareR raw source

California clockDiscovered Oct 1, 2021 → Notified Dec 2, 202162d ✗ CA 60-day late12 weeks discovery → filing

Incident timeline

undetected · 3 days

discovery → filing · 12 weeks / 82 days

Sep 28, 2021

Begins

Oct 1, 2021

Discovered

Dec 22, 2021

Filed

This filing is one of 7 filings about the same incident.View merged incident

Linked disclosures

Why this link?

Regulatory filings (6) · sorted by filing gap

Massachusetts State AGbd_0ed3ac6308a371702021-12-22Verified
Maine State AGbd_4962b25312de3ec32021-12-28 · +6dVerified by operator
Montana State AGbd_a24a34dbd24aff6e2021-12-02 · +20dCandidate
Indiana State AGbd_cb71465ebb99feaf2021-12-02 · +20dVerified

Show 2 more filings ↓up to 135d gap

California State AGbd_225c2aa965cadb542022-05-05 · +134dVerified
New Hampshire State AGbd_06e865c633561db82022-05-06 · +135dVerified

Name: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
norm: university of southern california

Name: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
norm: university of southern california
Industry: Educationllm

Discovered: Oct 1, 2021
Breach occurred: Sep 28, 2021
Undetected for: 3 daysoccurrence → discovery
Materiality determined: —
Notification sent: Dec 2, 2021
Affected individuals: Not disclosed
Data types: Identity (basic)Government IDEducation
Attack vector: Unknown
MITRE ATT&CK: T1052 Exfiltration Over Physical Medium

During the incident: Initiated an investigation and a review of available backups of the hard drive data
Reviewed its data security policies with the professor
Offering complimentary identity theft protection services through IDX
Changes made: Reviewed its data security policies with the professor in an effort to prevent a similar incident occurring in the future
Source: Quoted from the filing itself, not independently verified.

Time to disclose: 12 weeks(82 days from discovery to filing)
Compliance flags: CA 60-day late · 62d
Discovery-date grounding: letter-groundedThe discovery date is the detection date narrated in the notification letter — the defensible tier.
Clock breakdown: Statute Window Elapsed Threshold Status
California
Discovered: Oct 1, 2021
→ Notified: Dec 2, 2021
62d 60 days (analyst band, pre-2026 discoveries) CA 60-day late

Statute	Window	Elapsed	Threshold	Status
California	Discovered: Oct 1, 2021 → Notified: Dec 2, 2021	62d	60 days (analyst band, pre-2026 discoveries)	CA 60-day late

Status: No extraction artifact recorded for this disclosure.

Filing propagation · 7 filings · 6 states

View merged incident ↗

Montana State AGDec 2 · first

Indiana State AGDec 2 · first

Massachusetts State AG+20d

California State AG+20d · this page

Maine State AG+26d

California State AG+154d

New Hampshire State AG+155d

Pattern: first filing Dec 2 (MT), last May 6 (NH) — a 155-day rolling notification. Rolling spreads often mean counsel is filing as thresholds trip per state. Why this link?

Evidence ladder

Leak-site claim

Attacker assertion only. Establishes: claim date, group, alleged victim.

Press / market report

Unlocks: incident narrative, operational impact. Still no compliance clock.

State AG / regulator filingThis record

Unlocks: discovery date, data types, affected count, compliance clock.

SEC 8-K / victim statement

Unlocks: materiality, stated response, full audit trail. Ceiling removed.

Source URL: https://oag.ca.gov/ecrime/databreach/reports/sb24-548786
DisclosureLens links to the originating regulator URL — full filing bodies are not redistributed from public surfaces (§4.5).
Filed at: Dec 22, 2021
Raw hash: 364fcedb8790f490afca1b0a471587cebbf15f28eca8ad04d917eb69c0b603a0

Linked disclosures

Regulatory filings (6) · sorted by filing gap

Reporting entityUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Victim entityUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Incidentdiscovered Oct 1, 2021

Stated responseInitiated an investigation and a review of available backups of the hard drive data

ComplianceCA 60-day late

Extraction provenanceno artifact recorded

Source provenanceoag.ca.gov