Computer World tries to answer "What's up with universities?"

After a string of successful penetrations of university computer systems containing personal information, Computer World has an article that tries to answer my question, "what's up with universities":

Hack Exposes Lax Security in Academia - Computerworld:

"....In a survey of 501 colleges and universities conducted last fall by The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. and Gartner Inc., 41% of the respondents said hackers had succeeded in penetrating their systems. Fifty-three percent reported denial-of-service attacks, and 14% reported unauthorized access to student data.

But there is a growing awareness of the potential cost and risk to reputation associated with lax security, and a better understanding of the broader threat that unsecured university networks can pose, said Rodney Petersen, a policy analyst at Educause, a Washington-based nonprofit association of 1,900 universities.... "

See also PIPEDA and Canadian Privacy Law: What is up with universities?.