Robert Glass of WHRW News reports on a breach waiting to happen:
In a titanic breach of security, Binghamton University kept payment information for every student, possibly dating back at least ten years in a storage area next to one of the most trafficked lecture halls on campus, behind a door that was not only unlocked but taped open. The information itself contained social security numbers, credit card numbers, scans of tax forms, business information (including social security numbers and salary information for employees of students’ parents), asylum records and more, all kept in a haphazard and disorganized fashion, sprawled out in boxes, in unlocked (yet lockable) filing cabinets and shelving units. And, to seemingly add insult to injury, the university left dollies and a shopping cart in the room, apparently to aid in any attempted theft.
Scroll down and look at the pictures at the bottom of the news story.
Glass also reports:
WHRW News has offered to cooperate fully with the university in sharing all information that it found in return for an agreement from the university that there would be no pressure placed on it by its administration, and that reporters would not be prosecuted. Despite verbal assurances that an agreement would be forthcoming, the university has since changed its tone and has declined to offer such agreement. In fact, a official of the university has said, outright, that the News Director of WHRW News should seek personal legal council immediately.