Breach Exposes 126K Florida Students' Info

[Jake Kouns <jkouns () opensecurityfoundation org>]

http://www.esecurityplanet.com/features/article.php/3898281/Breach-Exposes-126K-Florida-Students-Info.htm

Students at six Florida community colleges this week are learning a
harsh lesson about data security after school officials began
notifying them that their personal information was inadvertently
exposed in late May and early June during what was supposed to be a
routine software upgrade.

Community college officials said more than 126,000 students attending
Broward College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Northwest
Florida State College, Pensacola State College, South Florida
Community College and Tallahassee Community College were the innocent
victims of a botched software upgrade by the College Center for
Library Automation (CCLA).

While the exact type of information exposed was not disclosed, Florida
state law requires companies and organizations to notify victims
whenever data, such as names, social security numbers or driver's
license numbers are compromised.

CCLA officials said the information was available online from May 29
to June 2. The community colleges were affected because their borrower
records were contained in temporary work files that were being
processed at the time the breach occurred. CCLA blamed a "software
glitch" for the accidental exposure of the students' data.

The library agency learned of the incident on June 23, after a student
reported finding personal information through a Google search.

"We pride ourselves on protecting private information and deeply
regret this inadvertent exposure," CCLA CEO Richard Madaus told the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "I apologize to those involved for any
worry or inconvenience this may cause them. We will continue to
enhance our technology to safeguard all of the information entrusted
to us."

[..]
_______________________________________________
Dataloss Mailing List (dataloss () datalossdb org)
Archived at http://seclists.org/dataloss/

Get business, compliance, IT and security staff on the same page with
CREDANT Technologies: The Shortcut Guide to Understanding Data Protection
from Four Critical Perspectives. The eBook begins with considerations
important to executives and business leaders.
http://www.credant.com/campaigns/ebook-chpt-one-web.php