HACKER GETS STUDENT DATA

From Tribune News Services

February 26, 2001 BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA -- A hacker apparently downloaded names and Social Security numbers of about 3,000 Indiana University students this month after a computer server was left vulnerable.

University officials mailed a letter last week to those people, who are mostly graduate students, IU spokeswoman Susan Dillman said.

The breach was caused when an employee temporarily responsible for the server brought it back online after working on it and accidentally left a security hole open, Dillman said.

"There are people who scan for unprotected servers they often use as a warehouse, which appears to be what happened here," she said.

It appeared the hacker was not based in the United States, and electronic files, mostly music and music videos, appeared to have been stored on the server, she said.

However, the letter, signed by IU Bursar Susan Cote, said system log entries indicated names and identification numbers were transferred from the server to various Internet sites. Most of those ID numbers were Social Security numbers.

http://chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,SAV-0102260118,FF.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 26, 2001