MSU Suffers Data Mishap

Officials from Mississippi State University (MSU) have notified approximately 2,400 students and employees that their confidential information was mistakenly made available on a public Web site. In a statement, Doc Foglesong, president of MSU, said, “When we learned that the site actually was publicly accessible, we took the server offline immediately and began an investigation.” Compromised information included names, Social Security numbers, and some birthdates. Maridith Geuder, a spokesperson for the university, would not say how the mishap occurred but noted that when the problem was discovered on December 6, the site was immediately taken down. For those individuals affected, the university will pay for a credit-monitoring service. Geuder also noted that the university is moving away from Social Security numbers as student identifiers, but that process is not complete.

Associated Press, 21 December 2006