Julia Ingram and Hannah Knowles report: Before this week, Stanford students could view the Common Applications and high school transcripts of other students if they first requested to view their own admission documents under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Accessible documents contained sensitive personal information including, for some students, Social Security numbers….
Category: Education Sector
IL: School District computer system; most data recovered, superintendent says
Kennedy Nolen reports: Foreign hackers targeted the Mount Zion schools computer system in an attack that resulted in 19 days’ worth of grades being wiped out across the district. Data was not removed from the system, but the hackers encrypted several servers, making them unusable, Superintendent Travis Roundcount said in an emailed response to questions from the…
‘Hackers’ Charged by U.S. Over Hundreds of Hoax Bomb Threats on Schools
Dell Cameron reports: An alleged hacker accused of sending fake bomb threats to hundreds of schools was reportedly arrested Tuesday by FBI agents in North Carolina, while an alleged accomplice, who is currently incarcerated in the U.K., now faces charges in the U.S. Timothy Dalton Vaughn, 20, is facing an 11-count federal indictment, including charges…
Schools Suffered at Least 122 Cybersecurity Incidents Last Year
Benjamin Herrold reports: The nation’s K-12 schools experienced 122 publicly reported cybersecurity incidents in 2018, more than half of which were caused or carried out by staff or students, and nearly 60 percent resulted in students’ personal data being compromised. And that’s likely just the tip of the iceberg, according to a report released Thursday by…
Laplace Woman Charged with Stealing Federal Student Aid Funds and Identity Theft
From the press release: United States Attorney Peter G. Strasser announced that KENDRA GRAVES, age 31, was charged on January 31, 2019 in a two-count bill of information with theft of government funds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641 and identity theft in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section…
Email Attachment Goof Exposed Personal Info of 4,557 Cal Poly Pomona Students
Victoria Gonzalez reports: Human error caused a massive leak of personal information of all active students in the College of Science. On Jan. 29, the campus community was notified via email of the leak. The incident occurred Jan. 28 when a university employee within the Computer Science Department intended to send an email containing advising…