According to its student newspaper, PanAmerican Online, The University of Texas-Pan American has e-mailed an alert to students affected by a security breach. The text of the e-mail is reportedly as follows: On Nov. 2, 2011, The University of Texas-Pan American discovered that on Sept. 1, 2011, a spreadsheet containing information on 19,276 students was made…
Author: Dissent
Virginia Commonwealth University alerts 176,567 faculty, staff, students and affiliates to hacking incident
A notice was posted today on Virginia Commonwealth University’s web site: To the VCU and VCU Health System communities: A security incident has resulted in unauthorized access to a Virginia Commonwealth University computer server containing files with personal information on current and former VCU and VCU Health System faculty, staff, students and affiliates. We believe the…
What a Children’s Magazine Teaches About Data Breach Management
Mary Landesman wrote a clever commentary on how to respond to breaches. Landesman uses Goofus and Gallant from the children’s Highlights magazine to contrast different types of responses with examples drawn from two healthcare sector breaches involving the University of North Carolina. If we teach our children to emulate Gallant and not Goofus, can those…
FL: Students’ Personal Information Exposed
Jacquie Slater reports: Parents in Wakulla County are worried after the social security numbers of thousands of students were accidentally made public. Superintendent David Miller sent the letter to the parents of more than 2400 students in grades four through ten whose information was accidentally posted on line. The glitch was found when a parent…
Steam database hacked; extent of breach still unclear
Steam Forums has issued a statement concerning a November 6 intrusion. Their notice reads: Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users: Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6. We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums. We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam…
UK: Gambling worker guilty of selling 65,000 bingo players’ details
A former gambling industry worker who unlawfully obtained and sold personal data relating to over 65,000 online bingo players has been found guilty of committing three offences under section 55 of the Data Protection Act. Marc Ben-Ezra, of Finchley, was given a three year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1,700 to Cashcade Limited as…