Farai Mudzingwa reports: Last year in June, the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) was hacked and the individual behind the hack demanded US$999 in order to return the files. This hacker also claimed to have secured some – in fact ALL- HIT databases and now there appears to be a new database that contains students…
Category: Education Sector
University of Vermont notifies community of hack of NetID portal
Brian Wallstin reports: University of Vermont officials say they have no reason to believe the personal information of 37,000 current and former faculty, staff and students fell into the wrong hands following a breach of the school’s computer systems. On Wednesday, UVM notified users of NetID, a portal that grants access to campus email, services such…
University of Toledo alerts some faculty, students of lost flash drive
Lauren Lindstrom reports: A lost flash drive containing the names and Social Security numbers of an undisclosed number of people associated with the University of Toledo prompted the university to send out letters alerting those affected by the “security incident.” A UT faculty member lost an unencrypted flash drive containing personal information belonging to some…
UK: The University of Greenwich fined £120,000 by Information Commissioner for “serious” security breach
The University of Greenwich has been fined £120,000 by the Information Commissioner following a “serious” security breach involving the personal data of nearly 20,000 people – among them students and staff. It is the first university to have been fined by the Commissioner under the existing data protection legislation (Data Protection Act 1998). The investigation…
NY: 2,690 University of Buffalo logins stolen in data breach (updated)
Benjamin Blanchet reports: Thousands of UB community members’ account information have been hacked. On Friday, UB confirmed that J. Brice Bible, vice president and chief information officer, is investigating and responding to a breach of 2,690 UBITName accounts. The breach affects 1,800 student accounts, 862 alumni accounts and 28 faculty and staff accounts, according to…
Bloomfield Hills high schoolers hack database to give themselves better grades
Violet Ikonomova reports: Leave it to kids in one of Michigan’s best school districts to have figured out how to hack the district’s grading system and (presumably) give themselves A’s. A message posted to the Bloomfield Hills Schools website alerts parents that “a couple” students made “some poor choices lately,” hacking into the district’s student…