Zack Whittaker writes: The University of Kent has been found to have breached data protection rules as a result of a disclosure of personal data, relating to an email which could identify other students with disabilities.Yesterday, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection agency, assessed that the University unlawfully disclosed personal data, mostly…
Category: Education Sector
Catch a clue from an EDU: Universities that get security right
Mary K. Pratt reports: Professor Corey Schou was working in his school’s library when he realized his computer was picking up a particularly strong Wi-Fi signal. Normally that would be welcome news. But Schou knew that spot was usually a dead zone, which meant something was probably amiss. So Schou, a professor of informatics at…
IL: 2002 records unintentionally released
I missed this breach involving Eastern Illinois University that was reported in the Daily Eastern News several weeks ago, but DataLossDB.org noticed it: Coarsely shredded documents displaying the names and Social Security numbers of Eastern employees in 2002 have been unintentionally released because of improper disposal. “EIU officials are still in the process of determining which years’ information…
Breach costly for researcher, UNC-CH
Eric Ferreri reports: A prominent cancer researcher at UNC-Chapel Hill spent at least $350,000 fighting for her job. It wasn’t enough. Bonnie Yankaskas, an epidemiologist in the medical school, retires at the end of 2011, as stipulated in a settlement that restores her rank and full salary. UNC-CH officials wanted to fire Yankaskas, whom they…
Central Oregon Community College Hackers May Have Compromised Student Information
1110 KBND points us to a statement on the Central Oregon Community College web site: Central Oregon Community College officials have identified some information on the COCC web site that may have been exposed as part of the recent unauthorized intrusion. COCC has taken down the web site while it works with law enforcement officials…
Ie: TCD reports data breach
Another Irish college is reporting a data breach: A file containing the names of students and staff of Trinity College Dublin, along with their addresses, ID numbers and email addresses, was “inadvertently” made accessible on a local network, the college said. TCD said today it had reported the incident to the Data Protection Commissioner. The…