Jennifer H. Svan reports: The theft of five thumb drives from an unlocked vehicle may have compromised the personal information of hundreds of pupils, their parents and staff members at a Defense Department school in Germany, school officials said Wednesday. Parents of more than 900 students at Ramstein Intermediate School were notified of the possible…
Category: Education Sector
Ca: Personal information of nearly 300 Wilfrid Laurier students found online
Elizabeth DiCesare reports: While preparing to apply to Canada’s police forces, Bob Baumgartner, a Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) graduate, decided to do a Google search of himself, and found more than he was expecting. After typing in his old e-mail address, Baumgartner found a list of 297 former WLU students that included their personal contact…
Student privacy breached in Delta School District
Sheila Reynolds reports: The Delta School District is assuring parents their children’s personal information is secure after student data was unintentionally accessed online last week. A parent in the district was using the Parent Connect system – which allows parents to access information about their own child – and ended up being able to see…
Breach on Cornell Computer Exposes Personal Data for Five Days
Akane Otani reports: The personal information of up to 2,000 people was exposed to the public for five days on a computer in Cornell’s athletics department, a University administrator confirmed Thursday. Donald Sevey, director of information systems, said that the University discovered that a file server containing “confidential data” about thousands of people was accessible…
IE: Schools warned over IT risk as pupil accesses confidential files
Katherine Donnelly reports: Second-level schools have been told to step up their computer security after a pupil obtained a username and password that allowed access to confidential files. The problem has arisen over the use of generic usernames and passwords, which schools may make available to substitute teachers. The Department of Education alerted the Joint…
St. Scholastica hack sheds light on Macalester IT security
Emma WestRasmus reports: “What was the name of your first pet? What’s your favorite color? What’s your mother’s maiden name?” We all know the drill. Whenever we start a new account we are prompted for answers to challenge questions that will surely be easy to remember. But for more than two dozen students at the…