Almeida Law Group is investigating a data breach at Santa Monica Community College. The breach occurred on April 13th, 2026. If you were affected, contact Almeida Law Group.
About Santa Monica Community College
Santa Monica College (SMC) is a public community college founded in 1929, located at 1900 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California. It enrolls over 30,000 students across more than 90 fields of study and is the sole college of the Santa Monica Community College District. As an employer, SMC maintains payroll and tax records for its workforce, and this incident involved employee W-2 forms containing names and Social Security numbers.
What Happened?
Santa Monica Community College was listed in a California Attorney General sample breach notice filed on June 25th, 2026. According to the breach notice, on May 14th, 2026, SMC identified that employee W-2 forms had been emailed to two former student workers. An internal investigation determined that the affected information was subject to unauthorized access from April 13th, 2026, to May 21st, 2026. SMC confirmed that the email was subsequently deleted and reported no evidence of misuse by either recipient. The review was completed on May 25th, 2026, and consumer notifications were sent on June 25th, 2026. The incident involved first and last names in combination with Social Security numbers. SMC is offering credit monitoring and identity protection services through Experian IdentityWorks at no cost to affected individuals. The notice was signed by Christopher M. Bonvenuto, Vice President of Business and Administration.
This W-2 misdirection incident is separate from a concurrent Canvas/Instructure platform breach that also affected SMC in May 2026, which involved a malicious link in a support ticket and was attributed to the threat group ShinyHunters. SMC stated there was no indication its own systems were compromised in that separate Canvas incident. No ransomware involvement or threat-actor attribution was reported for this W-2 incident, and no class action lawsuits related to it had been filed as of June 25th, 2026.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Company or Organization: Santa Monica Community College (Santa Monica Community College District)
- Industry: Higher Education (Public Community College)
- Location: Santa Monica, California
- Incident type: Unauthorized disclosure — employee W-2 forms emailed to two former student workers
- Date of breach: April 13th, 2026
- Date breach discovered: May 14th, 2026
- Date of consumer notification: June 25th, 2026
- Identity theft protection offered: Yes — Experian IdentityWorks credit monitoring, at no cost
- Prior breach: SMC was affected by a separate Canvas/Instructure platform breach in May 2026; SMC also appeared on the ShinyHunters extortion list during that incident but was later removed, with no evidence of compromise to SMC’s own systems
- Litigation status: No class action lawsuits related to this W-2 incident found as of June 25th, 2026
- Source: California Attorney General sample breach notice; Santa Monica College Breach Notice (PDF); Canvas Outage Updates — Santa Monica College; Cybersecurity Breach Impacts SMC’s Canvas Site — The Corsair
What Should You Do?
If you were affected by this breach, enroll in the free Experian IdentityWorks credit monitoring and identity protection services offered by SMC — the notice includes instructions for doing so. You can also place a fraud alert or credit freeze with the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to help prevent new accounts from being opened in your name. Review your credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com and monitor your financial account statements for any suspicious or unfamiliar activity. If you spot signs of identity theft or fraud, report them at IdentityTheft.gov, which provides step-by-step guidance for recovery.
Your Legal Rights
If your personal information was involved in this breach, you may have legal rights depending on the facts of the incident and the law in your state. Almeida Law Group represents consumers in data breach and privacy litigation and can help you evaluate whether you may have a claim. Contact us at (708) 529-5418 or through our contact page for a free case evaluation.
