Posted on Monday, 1st November 2010 by Nate Sawers
The Social Security numbers, grades and other personal information of more than 40,000 former University of Hawaii students were posted online for nearly a year before being removed this week.
University officials told the Associated Press that a faculty member inadvertently uploaded files containing the information to an unprotected server on Nov. 30, 2009. The information included names, academic performance, disabilities and other sensitive information of 40,101 students who attended the flagship Manoa campus from 1990 to 1998 and in 2001.
The university apologized for the incident, saying it was investigating how it happened. It was notifying the former students by e-mail and letters, and has also alerted the FBI and Honolulu police.
The incident is the third major information breach in the University of Hawaii system since last year. Each time, university officials promised it was strengthening its network systems and working to identify other potential security risks.
The university system’s other major breaches include this summer’s incident involving the personal information of 53,000 people who had business with the Manoa parking office. Last year, more than 15,000 students at Kapiolani Community College were warned after an infected computer compromised their information on financial aid applications.
The University of Hawaii believes problems will lessen with time because of changes in the use of Social Security numbers. The University of Hawaii system started to phase out Social Security numbers to identify students in 2002. The numbers are still used to identify students from before that time for transcripts and other requests for information.
The University of Hawaii has setup a call center and website for individuals who may have been affected. Those who might be affected by the breach were advised to obtain a credit report and to review financial statements to look for unusual activities.
Similar Posts:
- Hackers Access Florida Students Personal Information
- Chapman University Students’ Personal Information Exposed
- Data Breach at Virginia Commonwealth University
- 60,000 University of Wisconsin-Madison Social Security Numbers Hacked
- Data Breach at The University of Tampa
Tags: Personal, Personal Information
Posted in Thieft Protection | No Comments »