Jasmine Williams of WMGT reports that an online security breach was the beginning of a sequence of events that led Wilkinson County officials in Georgia to dismiss schools early on Friday: According to authorities, a Wilkinson County student accessed the user names and passwords to PowerTeacher. PowerTeacher is a classroom management system used to store…
Category: U.S.
University of Rhode Island notifies faculty and students after SSN discovered exposed on the Internet
WPRI in Rhode Island reports that University of Rhode Island is notifying current and former faculty members as well as some students that their data were on a publicly shared College of Business Administration server that was accessed and viewed by unauthorized individuals. A statement posted on URI’s web site indicates that 1,000 faculty members were being…
Teenager arrested in Eugene school computer breach released
Back in June, the Eugene School District 4J in Oregon reported a breach. A teenager who allegedly obtained an employee’s login credentials was subsequently charged. An affidavit submitted to obtain a search warrant of the student’s computer indicated that the teen had admitted to using a brute force program. Apparently, the teen has detained since…
CabinCr3w member sentenced to 27 months in prison (updated)
Steven Kreytak reports that a Galveston man was sentenced by a federal judge to 27 months in federal prison for hacking into computers of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Alabama Department of Public Safety, Houston County, Alabama and the West Virginia Chiefs of Police Association. Higinio O. Ochoa III, who pleaded guilty in…
DSW Shoe Warehouse wins dispute with Chartis unit over data theft coverage
Judy Greenwald reports: A federal appellate court ruled Thursday that shoe retailer DSW Shoe Warehouse Inc. was entitled to insurance coverage of more than $6.8 million in stipulated losses and prejudgment interest from a Chartis Inc. unit in connection with a 2005 computer breach. In an incident widely reported at the time, DSW, a subsidiary…
SBCSC computer glitch may have caused security breach
Jenn Zellers reports that a computer glitch experienced by the South Bend Community School Corporation in Indiana exposed some employees’ Social Security numbers: The district says when it changed student management systems, some employee social security numbers accidentally transferred over. According to the district, the numbers could only be seen by employees being trained on…