CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is investigating a data breach that affects more than 6,000 people. The school says personal files containing information like names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth of some current and former employees, vendors and students were accidentally made public.

A university official learned last month that some of those files were accessible on the Internet, and less than two weeks later the files weren't online anymore.

Officials say some safeguards meant to protect such files had been disabled this summer while a computer was undergoing maintenance and never restarted. The school says it is notifying people whose information was affected and is sending out information on steps that people can take to monitor any potential fraudulent activity.