Miami University Security Breach Exposes Thousands of Students
Posted on: Friday, 16 September 2005, 00:00 CDT
Sep. 16--OXFORD -- A report containing the Social Security numbers and grades of more than 20,000 Miami University students enrolled in the fall of 2002 has been accessible via the Internet for nearly three years, university officials said Thursday.
The security breach, which involves 21,762 students on all of the university's campuses, was discovered after a Miami graduate alerted the alumni office last week, said Richard Little, senior director of university communications.
The alumni office then notified the university's information technology office, which removed it Monday morning.
The information was accidentally posted in the public share folder of former accountancy department chairman John Cumming, according to Miami officials.
Public share folders allow staff to post information to the Internet via a university server. Miami officials said the information was intended for a private share folder and remained in an "isolated" area of the network.
Cumming does not remember placing the information in the public share folder, but recalls requesting the report in 2002, according to Little.
"The report is fairly standard," Little said. "Faculty members use it to see the (grade point averages) of students." Miami used students' Social Security numbers as a method to identify students before 2003. Now students are issued a generated identification number.
Little said the fact that Cumming requested all 21,762 students records was a sheer mistake.
"The report itself is set to generate on an a la carte basis," Little said. "(Cumming) didn't know how to order the things he needed. Obviously, this is one of the things we need to look at." Although it is uncertain when the report surfaced online, university officials suspect it was posted near its 2002 request. Miami online logs only date back one year.
"From the observation logs, we can say that this information was not opened for a while," Little said.
Miami has been attempting to contact those affected by the report through e-mails and letters. While many of the affected are mostly alumni, Little said a number of current students also were affected.
Little said the university is taking measures to ensure this does not happen again.
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Source: Middletown Journal
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