Saturday, January 22, 2005

Incident: Harvard Hacked

The Harvard Crimson is reporting on a security breach at Harvard University that allowed access to student numbers and student drug prescriptions:Drug Records, Confidential Data Vulnerable: Harvard ID numbers, PharmaCare loophole provide wide-ranging access to private data.

See also coverage in the Boston Globe:

Boston.com / News / Local / Mass. / Harvard fixing data security breaches:

"...Harvard shut down access to a software tool widely used by faculty to survey students, after student reporters from The Harvard Crimson demonstrated how it could be misused to obtain any student or employee's Harvard identification number. The eight-digit ID numbers, printed on identification cards, are widely used by students, staff, and faculty to conduct business on campus.

In a more disturbing security problem, the Crimson reported that by using student birth dates and ID numbers obtained from the polling site, its staff members were able to misuse a website run by an outside health care firm, Rhode Island-based PharmaCare, to get access to lists of prescription drugs bought by Harvard students. At the university's request, access to that website for Harvard community members has now been blocked by the company...."

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