Annysa Johnson reports: Access to data maintained by the state’s Department of Public Instruction was limited Tuesday after the state’s technology staff found vulnerabilities in coding that could have opened the data sets to hackers if exploited. DPI spokesman Thomas McCarthy said there was no data breach. However, he said, technicians had to take down several…
Category: Education Sector
New Study of School Websites Reveals Widespread Online Security and Privacy Issues
According to a new study released today by EdTech Strategies, Tracking: EDU – Education Agency Website Security and Privacy Practices, state and local education agency websites were found to lack important security and privacy protections for students, families, and educators. “State department of education and school district websites have become indispensable for accessing information about…
Former University of Kansas student accused of computer hacking faces 18 felony charges
Sara Shepherd reports: A former University of Kansas freshman, in fear of flunking out, successfully used a device called a keystroke logger to steal instructors’ confidential login information, hack into multiple campus computers and change F’s to A’s. Although the hacking apparently went unnoticed for most of two semesters, the student eventually got caught and…
Ca: Queen’s students affected by McMaster security breach
Iain Sherriff-Scott reports: After a cyber intrusion at McMaster University in November, some Queen’s students have been notified their admissions information may have been compromised. In a letter sent from Melissa Pool of McMaster’s University Registrar to several Queen’s students who had previously applied to the University, Pool explained, “an unauthorized individual accessed a secured…
SC school district latest victim to ransomware
Kendall Morris reports: A South Carolina school district is the latest victim to ransomware. Chester County School District posted on its Facebook page Monday that ransomware hit the district’s servers over the weekend. The post went on to say that no data has been taken or breached, and it has a specialist on site to…
University of Baltimore exposed student identity information for more than three years: auditors (UPDATED)
Jan. 29 – please see update under this post. Meredith Cohn reports on a breach involving University of Baltimore student data: The University of Baltimore has added protections to personal student data that officials had left unsecured possibly for years, according to a state audit released this month. The information on 117,793 students was kept…