more on Harvard [and others ibl CMU ] applicants breached security

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Mary Shaw <mary.shaw () gmail com>
Reply-To: Mary Shaw <mary.shaw () gmail com>
Date: Sun, 06 Mar 2005 09:49:06 -0500
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Harvard [and others ibl CMU ] applicants breached security

If peeking required deliberate acts ny the students to circumvent the
security, I wonder how many of the schools will re-evaluate the
applications of these hundred or so students in view of the ethical
concerns.

Of course, if the site just happened to unlock something early and
only normal user clicking revealed the information, arguably through
no fault of the student, that would not be appropriate.

Mary


On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 09:41:24 -0500, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
> Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 03:40:06 -0500
> To: <undisclosed-recipient:;>
> Subject: Harvard applicants breached security
>
> Harvard applicants breached security
>
> Tried via computer to learn status
>
> By Hiawatha Bray and Robert Weisman, Globe Staff  |  March 4, 2005
>
> For at least two hours after midnight Wednesday, a computer hacker
> enabled applicants to the Harvard Business School to find out whether
> they'd been accepted, weeks before Harvard planned to release the
> news.
>
> According to Harvard, more than 100 would-be graduate students took
> advantage of the digital loophole, and some of them glimpsed
> preliminary decisions on their applications. The loophole affected
> other schools, including the Sloan School of Management at the
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology and business schools at
> Stanford, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, and other universities. But
> officials at Stanford and MIT said none of their admissions decisions
> had yet been posted to their sites.
>
> In a security breach at ApplyYourself Inc., the Fairfax, Va. company
> that runs the admissions computer systems for the business schools
> and 400 other colleges and universities, a hacker found a way to let
> applicants peek at confidential admissions data. ''This is the first
> incident of this kind," said Len Metheny, the chief executive of
> ApplyYourself. ''Once we learned about it, within literally 2? hours,
> we had made appropriate adjustments to the system. . . . We still
> remain confident that it's a secure system."
>
> But Steven Nelson, the executive director of Harvard's MBA program,
> said their admissions data were vulnerable for nine hours, during
> which 119 applicants from countries around the world tried to get at
> their admissions status.
>
> ...
>
> http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/03/04/harvard_a
> pplicants_breached_security/
>
> ------ End of Forwarded Message
>
> -------------------------------------
> You are subscribed as mary.shaw () gmail com
> To manage your subscription, go to
>  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
>
> Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/

------ End of Forwarded Message


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/