While Public Safety clamps down on Columbia's physical security, some students were alerted today to a breach in the university's virtual defenses. According to an email they received, Housing and Dining accidentally exposed information from students' housing files online for a period on April 2nd. "Exposure was limited," the email goes on to say, "because there were no links to the files on any Columbia website and because the files could only be viewed with a Columbia University UNI and password and a specific type of software." Still, many students' Social Security Numbers were among the bits of information placed online.

In the wake of the incident, Housing and Dining has, it claims, attempted to limit further exposure of student SSNs. The files were, of course, removed from the website, and students affected were offered a year of free credit monitoring, or the ability to file fraud reports or run credit checks with various agencies free of charge, if they so choose. The administration is clearly doing much to ensure no further damage to students results from this incident. Though it has been attempting to move away from the use of SSNs, however, their presence on student datasets is still prevalent, and the security precautions needed to secure them clearly have some way to go.

The full email from Lisa Hogarty to affected students appears below the jump.

-CJS

It would be against Bwog's better judgement to post this quasi-sensationalist personnel gossip... but... now that we've told you there is quasi-sensationalist personnel gossip, we can't leave you hanging..?

An anonymous tipster sent Bwog this excerpt of a personal email from Columbia's Human Resources department describing some inter-office identity theft.

"On August 15, 2006, an employee in Columbia's HR department was found to have misused the personal information of certain Columbia employees. The employee has been arrested by the New York Police Department, and its investigation is ongoing. The information included, among other things, names, social security numbers, home addresses, telephone numbers, and direct deposit bank account information. Unfortunately, it appears that this employee may have accessed your information...."

Bwog will also refrain from pointing out the irony of an identity thief posing as someone who does background checks for a living. Oops.

From Bored at Butler:

I believe that pretty much all the guys at columbia are secretly gay and just don't know it yet. Metrosexuals are halfway there.

01/30/2006 @ 11:33:44 PM

Somewhere on campus, Chris Kulawik readies a rebuttal.
- Mark Krotov