ME: 'Potential Breach' of Confidential Student Data (Bates College)

[lyger <lyger () attrition org>]

http://media.www.batesstudent.com/media/storage/paper1116/news/2007/10/23/News/potential.Breach.Of.Confidential.Student.Data-3050562.shtml

Two publicly accessible documents that contained the record of nearly 500 
recipients of the federal Perkins Loan along with each recipient's 
address, date of birth, Social Security number, legal name and loan amount 
were uncovered on the Bates network by The Bates Student on Oct. 13. All 
that was necessary to access the files was a Bates username and password.

The information which is intended to be private could easily be used for 
identification theft. Because this information could be used for this 
purpose, Maine statute 1346 known as "the Notice of Risk to Personal Data 
Act," enacted this past spring, requires Bates to notify the affected 
students that the data has been potentially compromised. Information and 
Library Services Vice President Gene Weimers was uncertain at press time 
whether or not the Maine statute requires them to notify the Maine 
Attorney General.

Managing News Editor Conor Hurley of The Student informed the Student 
Financial Services Office (SFS) that the documents were publicly available 
on Oct. 15. The SFS Office claims to not have received Hurley's 
correspondence and the documents remained on the server. When Hurley 
contacted the SFS Office Monday, it attributed the mistake to the 
Information and Library Services Office but declined further comment.

[...]
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