Anthony C. Maki reports:
An online MCTC [Minneapolis Community and Technical College] directory left sensitive student data and internal documents accessible to the prying eyes of anyone with an Internet connection since at least the summer of 2006, according to an investigation by City College News.
Besides annual accounts-receivable reports and salary rosters, a database spanning the last several years of work-study records contained the names of students, their student ID numbers, the amount which they were awarded and the amount which they had earned, sorted by department.
However, college officials claimed that only names of department heads, student ID numbers and work-study awards appeared in the database. This contradicts what City College News found, but the college said that it would investigate further for other data.
The college did not keep records of who accessed the data, according to Jim Dillemuth, chief information officer of MCTC, who suggested that there is no reason to suspect that the data came under inappropriate use.
Read more on City College News.