BISD notifies parents of 15, 000 students of data breach

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

http://www.kfdm.com/news/data-44672-breach-bisd.html

BISD notifies parents of 15,000 students of data breach
September 08, 2011 5:58 PM
Scott Lawrence

BEAUMONT - From BISD - The superintendent of schools for Beaumont 
Independent School District today announced that letters are being mailed 
to parents of nearly 15,000 of its 19,848 students to inform them of a 
potential breach of data that occurred recently. According to Dr. Carrol 
A. Thomas, the breach concerning confidential information that was placed 
on the staff server for principals to access was discovered Friday. The 
posted data was about potential student success on future state academic 
assessments. Inadvertently, private information--including the name, date 
of birth, gender, social security number, grade and scores on the Texas 
Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exam of students who were in the 
third through 11th grades during the 2009-2010 school year--were 
potentially exposed.

When BISD officials learned of the breach, its technology team immediately 
moved to secure the files and expunge the data from outside accessibility, 
including internet search engines. The team implemented additional 
strategies to further protect BISD from future potential data breaches.

[..]
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