Harvard student info security compromised

Friday, 14 Mar 2008. Categories: USA

The personal information of thousands of students and university applicants has been accessed by hackers in recent weeks, it has emerged.

Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which was subject to the attack, announced that it had become aware of the incident last month but had not realised the full extent of the security problem at that time and was currently notifying those individuals affected.

After gaining access to the school's web server, the hacker could use the information gleaned to achieve the identity theft of as many as 10,000 applicants and students, the Boston Herald reports.

"That information included approximately 6,600 admissions candidates' names, social security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers [and] test scores," the news provider states.

Meanwhile, the Ottawa Citizen reports on the case of a virus originating near the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which spread swiftly through the local area by moving between wireless routers housed in people's homes.

It only ceased to spread when no networks were in range.

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Harvard student info security compromised

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