Cornell Computer Theft Puts 45,000 At Risk of Identity Theft

PL/SQL Guy writes "This afternoon, Cornell alerted over 45,000 current and former members of the University community that their confidential personal information — including name and social security number — had been leaked when a University-owned computer was stolen. A Cornell employee had access to this data for troubleshooting purposes, and the files storing the sensitive information were being stored on a computer that was not physically secure. The university is not disclosing details about the theft. This isn't the first breach for Cornell; last June, a computer at Cornell used for administrative purposes was hacked, and the University alerted 2,500 students and alumni that their personal information had potentially been stolen."

Comments

Keeping User Data in a University....

[introspekt.i]

Is like trying to hold water in a sifter. It's only a matter of time before some doofus puts an .xls file with everybody's info into a web share and then says "hackers compromised the [publicly available] private student data". Not like I haven't had any experience with this....or anything.

I was one of the 45K

[Anonymous Coward]

It is extremely frustrating. I encrypt my personal data when it is under my control. It is unforgivable that an institution that I pay this much can't do the same.