Shostack + Friends Blog Archive

 

CUNY, Hundreds of SSNs, Exposed Files

The CUNY foul-up that put students’ personal information a Google search away from identity thieves was more widespread than first reported, with school officials saying yesterday that the Social Security numbers of hundreds of employees also got on the Web.

City University of New York officials detected the unprotected payroll link for Hunter College Campus Schools this past Wednesday after a law student tipped them about search engine links to CUNY files.

Delayed response

But while 335 Queens College law students got alerts on the breach Thursday, CUNY waited until Friday to e-mail memos on the Hunter problem that involved 265 workers and 171 former workers and retirees from the elementary and high schools, according to the Hunter memo and CUNY’s chronology.

From Newsday, “New CUNY security slip“ [link to http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/newyork/nyc-nycuny284445801sep28,0,5078667.story?coll=nyc-nynews-print no longer works], via Privacy.org.