Fergie's Tech Blog

Universities Vulnerable to ID Thieves

An AP newswire article by Gary Gentile, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

Universities have become attractive targets for hackers who are taking advantage of the openness of the schools' networks, their decentralized security and the personal information they keep on millions of young adults.

A major database breach at the University of California, Los Angeles that went undetected for more than a year and a smaller breach at the University of Texas are the latest examples of how vulnerable colleges are to such attacks, security experts said.

Universities account for more than 50 data breaches on a list of more than 300 so far this year as tracked by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Hackers have broken into computer systems at Georgetown University, Ohio University, the University of Alaska and Western Illinois University, among others.

"They are a major category, if not the major category," Clearinghouse director Beth Givens said.

posted by Fergie @ 12/17/2006 11:56:00 AM