The New Zealand Herald reports: Vulnerable university students had their privacy breached in an email asking them to rate their experiences with counselling services. Dozens of Massey University students’ email addresses and names were visible in the message sent last month, in what the Privacy Commissioner’s office said was a breach of private information. A…
Category: Education Sector
VA: Teacher’s file contains personal info on others
Jeremy Lazarus reports: If you teach or have taught for Richmond Public Schools, your colleagues may have access to your personal information. The disclosure that the RPS Human Resources Department is failing to guard confidential records came from a former teacher who found her personnel file contained information it should not have, including Social Security…
UK: Brunel University London signs undertaking to provide staff training in data protection
Brunel University London agreed to sign an undertaking with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after an incident involving the loss of 10 boxes with seven personnel files and 61 Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) [TUPE] files. According to the undertaking, the incident occurred following an office renovation to remove asbestos. Brunel University London staff members…
Corona Del Mar tutor who stole teachers’ login credentials to change students’ grades sentenced
I’ve reported on the Timothy Lance Lai/Corona Del Mar grade-changing case a number of times in the past few years. Now Megan Geuss reports: On Tuesday, Southern California tutor Timothy Lance Lai pleaded guilty to computer fraud and burglary for placing keylogging software on teachers’ computers to steal login credentials which he used to change…
Higher Education Institutions Increasingly Falling Victim to Cyberattacks
Anna C. Watterson and Sean B. Hoar write: Higher education institutions are treasure troves for hackers. Colleges and universities are huge repositories of research data, sensitive information for large populations of applicants and enrolled students (personal, academic, financial and health data), as well as sensitive personal and tax information for all faculty and staff. Higher education…
UK: Bodmin College website offline after it was hacked with obscenities
Ah, I missed this one from last week. On July 30th, CG_Oscar reported: A disgruntled former student is thought to be responsible for hacking Bodmin College’s website. People finding the website online are confronted with a series of obscenities. Although the home page is still active, other pages are no longer available to view. IT…