Oops! UF posts sensitive student data online

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JUNE 10, 2008

Call it a belated "Oops!"

It seems UF officials starting in 2003 posted online -- in a way that the general public might have accessed -- the names, address and Social Security numbers for more than 11,300 current and former students.

UF administrators just notified most of the students, after discovering the messup recently during a routine audit of the university's computer and data systems. There are 570 students they could not find but are still looking for.

Apparently, former student employees of the Office for Academic Support and Institutional Service, or OASIS, created online records of students participating in the program. The student employees posted the information online so that they could work with it from remote locations, but they did not put in security measures to keep others from accessing the data.

Anyone who believes their information may have been compromised can call UF's Privacy Office Hotline at 866-876-HIPA and provide the requested information.

Posted by Aaron Sharockman at 10:45:27 am on June 10, 2008 in

Higher Education

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