It’s a bit of a broken record, but somebody managed to rip off a laptop computer housing the Social Security numbers, names and other information of more than 7,000 students attending the City College of New York.
As eSecurity Planet reports, this latest data breach at a U.S. college or university underscores just how much information can be had and how little security is actually employed at higher learning institutions.
Just last month, University of Connecticut officials had to notify 10,000-plus people who applied to the university over a six-year period that a laptop containing their most sacred personal data was swiped from a locked storage cabinet.
In July, hackers managed to infiltrate a pair of servers at the University of Maine, putting the names, Social Security numbers, addresses and other vital information of several thousand students at risk.
More than 7,000 students attending City College of New York this week are beginning to receive notices from school officials that their names, Social Security numbers and other personal information were exposed after a school laptop was stolen last month.
According to a post on the Educational Security Incidents (ESI) blog, the laptop was stolen a couple weeks ago. It was password protected but not encrypted and, thus far, CCNY officials have found no evidence suggesting student data has been used for identity theft or other illegal endeavors.
CCNY officials said the school is in the process of reviewing its security procedures and has established a hotline for affected students to call for more information and to ask questions about protecting and monitoring their credit information as a result of the breach.