Kevin Lizarazo reports:
A file containing 61,001 names, including NetIDs and SBU IDs, was leaked on the Internet on Dec. 14., prompting the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) to investigate the incident.
Richard W. Reeder, DoIT’s Chief Information Officer, called the disclosure “very irresponsible.”
A user posted the file on sbuchat.com, a website described on its Facebook page as a “student made and run website for the anonymous discussion and exchange of opinions of Stony Brook University students.”
The file, distributed in PDF and Excel formats, contained the identifying information on all registered students and faculty–including current President Samuel Stanley Jr.–but did not include other vital information such as passwords or Social Security numbers.
According to an interview with the file-poster, a 21-year-old Information Systems Engineer undergraduate student who refused to be named, the file was created last May. He found an exploit within the SOLAR system, which allowed him to change students’ NetID passwords without knowledge of the original passwords. After discovering the exploit, the user was then able to access a list of 61,001 registered students and faculty.
Read more on the Stony Brook Independent.