Kathleen Dion of Robinson & Cole writes: On January 30, 2018, EDUCAUSE, a higher education technology association, submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Education describing concerns that it had with the Federal Student Aid (“FSA”) ability to protect federal student financial aid data. EDUCAUSE’s members include IT professionals from over 1,800 colleges and…
Category: Education Sector
University of Alaska data breach affects employees, students
KTVA reports: A data breach at the University of Alaska has affected dozens of current and former employees and students according to university officials, who say action is being taken on the matter. According to a UA statement, word first reached security officials when users started reporting “an inability to access their password-protected Alaska.edu accounts.”…
Cyber criminals target Wallace employees
Blake Deshazo reports: Personal and financial information of current and former employees of Wallace Community College Selma has been accidentally leaked through a phishing scam, according to an attorney representing the school. Alex Walker, an attorney with Mullen Coughlin, a law firm that specializes in cybersecurity and data privacy, said on Feb. 5 an employee…
Florida school district seeking settlement with W-2 phishing data breach victims
Herald Tribune reports: On Tuesday, School District of Manatee County officials will ask the school board to approve a $300,000 settlement to a class action lawsuit being brought by school district employees who say they suffered damages from a massive data breach last January. On Jan. 26, 2017 a payroll employee responded to an email…
UK: Former council worker fined for sharing personal information about schoolchildren and parents via Snapchat
From the what-the-HELL-were-they-thinking department: A former local authority education worker who illegally shared personal information about schoolchildren and their parents has been prosecuted. Samira Bouzkraoui, 24, took a screenshot of a council spreadsheet concerning children and their eligibility for free school meals before sending it to the estranged parent of one of the pupils via…
Higher Ed Users Are Less Susceptible to Phishing Scams
Meghan Bogardus Cortez reports: University end users are pretty good at identifying a scam. Only 10 percent of simulated phishing emails sent to users at education institutions were successful, a new study from Wombat Security Technologies reports. The company monitored tens of millions of simulated phishing attacks sent over the course of a year through…