The 2013 breach at Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) in Arizona affected approximately 2.5 million faculty, staff, vendors, and students, making it the largest breach involving student information ever reported by a U.S. institution of higher education. A complaint by this privacy advocate alleges violations of the Safeguards Rule. Having researched and reported on breaches for about…
Tag: Maricopa County Community College District
Commentary: We need a congressional inquiry into the MCCCD breach
President Truman had a sign on his desk that said, “The buck stops here.” We could use more of that accountability when it comes to data breaches in the education sector. Back in 2006, when I first began blogging about data breaches on PogoWasRight.org, I covered a series of breaches at Ohio University. One of the things that…
In split vote, MCCCD extends contract with law firm for data breach-related services (updated)
I usually don’t find news about law firms’ contracts with respect to data breach-related services particularly noteworthy, but in the context of Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD)’s data breach response, there’s been a newsworthy aspect. Last year, MCCCD hired the law firm of Wilson Elser to handle their breach response. As I noted on…
Another notice of claim filed against MCCCD following massive breach
Another lawsuit has been filed against Maricopa County Community College District. From the press release by the law firm: Gallagher & Kennedy has served the Maricopa County Community College District with another notice of class-action claims on behalf of approximately 2.5 million students, parents and others whose private, confidential information was compromised in a massive data…
Maricopa County Community College District sued to compel public records production (update 1)
You may not be reading much in the news recently about the breach involving Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), but there’s a lot going on. Unfortunately, MCCCD has reportedly not been particularly forthcoming with records that might shed light on what really happened back in 2011 when MCCCD was informed by the FBI that…
MCCCD IT Employees: ‘District knew about security concerns’
Within hours of DataBreaches.net reporting litigation against Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) and statements by employees claiming that MCCCD is attempting to cover up its lax security by blaming employees, two (other) employees have started publicly revealing more details. Greg Argos of CBS5 (KPHO) reports that the two have come forward with documents to support their…