HANOVER, N.H. (AP) – Hackers hit the computer system at Dartmouth College last week and got access to sensitive information about thousands of employees and students.

Larry Levine, Dartmouth’s chief information officer, said he did not know for sure what the hackers’ purpose was. He said one of the compromised computer servers contained information on college employees, retired employees and their families. Other servers involved contained research data and staff and student immunization information.

Levine said perhaps as many as 10,000 people could be affected. As of Saturday, he said no one had reported any suspicious charges on their credit cards or any other indications that personal information had been tapped.

Levine said hackers frequently try to break into university systems to gain illegal access to music and movies without being detected.

“We believe that is the most likely scenario in this case,” he wrote in an e-mail to Dartmouth faculty and students. “It’s not so much to get at information as it is to get at software or games,” and make them widely available online.

Professor David Kotz, director of Dartmouth’s Institute of Security Technology Studies, said he also believed the hackers were after games or music, not personal information.

“This type of thing is happening more everywhere,” he told The Valley News. “They want to access a computer to do their own thing, whether it’s sending spam or gaining access to music or pornography.”

Dartmouth quickly removed the unauthorized program installed by the hackers and added further safeguards to secure the servers, Levine said. He said staffers worked all night Wednesday to correct the situation after the breach was identified.

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Information from: Lebanon Valley News, http://www.vnews.com

AP-ES-08-01-04 1159EDT