Tim McGlone reports:

A former student employee at Virginia Wesleyan College faces federal charges of accessing a school database of more than 380,000 students and alumni, stealing identities and opening credit card accounts.

Katecha R. “Tisha” Thomas, 28, is accused of stealing $11,000 from the credit card accounts, and she tried to get as much as $142,000 but was stopped by a credit card company that suspected fraud, federal authorities said.

The school said that upon learning of the breach in 2012, it took immediate steps to notify potential victims.

Thomas was a student at the college from 2010 to 2012 and worked in the advancement department, where she had unrestricted access to a database containing 381,000 records of students and alumni, according to a court filing by a U.S. postal inspector.

Read more in The Virginian-Pilot.

A redacted copy of the postal inspector’s affidavit in the case can be found here (pdf).