The top 10 higher-ed tech stories of 2010: No. 7

College IT departments have struggled to keep hackers out of campus networks.

In October, higher education saw one of its largest data security breaches ever, as the Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and other personal information for about 760,000 current and former Ohio State University students were accessed by unauthorized network users. The Ohio State incident followed other security breaches at schools such as the University of Maine, Penn State University, and Florida International University in the past year—although it was a breach at the University of Hawaii (UH) that might be the most damaging of all.

That’s because a former UH student filed a class-action lawsuit against the school Nov. 18 in what is believed to be the first such case of its kind. If the lawsuit succeeds, or if UH settles, it could change how colleges and universities handle sensitive information going forward, some experts say.

Many colleges and universities already are paying more attention to how personal student information is stored and used, and the lawsuit now facing UH could cause more schools to examine their own practices, said Timothy Kaye, a law professor at Stetson University College of Law. Kaye added: “I think that a lot of these things should be rethought.”…Read More

Data breaches slam campuses this summer

More than 19,000 students and faculty had their information compromised at Florida International University this summer.
About 19,000 Florida International University students and faculty had their information compromised this summer.

It’s been a tough summer for college IT officials charged with defending campus servers from hackers who target databases brimming with students’ and faculty’s personal information.

At least three universities—the University of Maine, Penn State University, and Florida International University—reported data breaches in June that compromised Social Security numbers, academic and financial records, and other information for about 40,000 students and faculty across the three institutions.

These universities and others that have scrambled to alert faculty and students of data crimes in recent years are not alone, according to research from the Identity Theft Resource Center, a San Diego-based nonprofit organization.…Read More

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