Chapel Hill Researcher Fights Demotion After Security Breach

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

http://chronicle.com/article/Chapel-Hill-Researcher-Fights/124821/?key=SmN7cgVsO3RHZ3pqYjgRMDwBP3xsYhh7YHVJOXB6bl9TGQ%3D%3D

October 5, 2010
Chapel Hill Researcher Fights Demotion After Security Breach
By Katherine Mangan

A prominent cancer researcher at the University of North Carolina at 
Chapel Hill is fighting the university's decision to demote her and cut 
her pay in half after a security breach in a medical study she directs was 
discovered. The breach could have revealed medical records of of more than 
100,000 women whose data were studied.

The researcher, Bonnie C. Yankaskas, an associate professor of radiology 
and adjunct professor of epidemiology, says the university is responsible 
for the security flaws, and she is being made a scapegoat. University 
officials have been pressuring her to resign, she said, but added, "This 
is my life's work, and there's too much to do. I'm not going anywhere."

Ms. Yankaskas is the lead investigator in the Carolina Mammography 
Registry, a university project that is part of a nationwide consortium 
that collects and analyzes mammography results.

Last year, medical-school technology officials discovered that a hacker 
had infiltrated one of the project's two computer servers, which contained 
personal data, including names, addresses, and birth dates, of about 
180,000 women. About 114,000 of those files included the patients' Social 
Security numbers. The break-in happened in 2007 but was only discovered 
after Ms. Yankaskas reported having trouble with her server in 2009.

[..]
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