Colleges and Cybersecurity Breaches

Parent Cafe
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<p>From today’s DHS Open Source Infrastructure Report (banking sector): A growing concern among privacy advocates: </p>

<p>College and universities aren’t up to speed when it
comes to safeguarding information on their networks. In the past 18 months, colleges were the source of one−third to half of all publicly disclosed breaches, which is a larger share than financial services, government, retail, or health care. </p>

<p>Privacy advocates say the breaches come 3
at a time when higher education is under growing pressure to collect data on students. Recently, a federally appointed commission proposed that the Department of Education maintain a system to report personal, financial, and academic data for every college student. No federal laws require businesses, non−profits, or public institutions to notify consumers when personal
information has been compromised. Thirty−four states require such notification. </p>

<p>Linda Foley of the Identity Theft Resource Center says colleges may be more likely than businesses to report network breaches. Also, unlike most businesses, which usually have a clear chain of command,
campuses typically are decentralized. That makes it harder to ensure adequate security measures are in place across the board.</p>

<p>Source: <a href=“http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID[/url]”>http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID&lt;/a&gt;
=/20060803/SPJ0101/608030366&template=printart</p>

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<p>If the link won’t work, today’s DHS report with the complete information will show up here later today:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.dhs.gov/infrastructuredailyreport[/url]”>http://www.dhs.gov/infrastructuredailyreport&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>We too got a letter from our son’s college saying that their records had been compromised and the social security numbers (and other information) of 60,000 students had been stolen.</p>

<p>This is getting worse and worse…</p>

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<p>We got the letter Saturday. 17,000 records. DD is coming home from a trip today and she will order the suggested credit reports. </p>

<p>Keeping crossed fingers. …</p>