What is up with universities?

Today, I fiind myself asking the question, "what is up with universities?" I'm not just asking this because I am posting from the computer lab at Dalhousie Law School after teaching my class, but because they are leaking personal information like sieves.

Earlier today, I posted about a hacker-caused privacy breach at a university in Kansas. (Click here -- PIPEDA and Canadian Privacy Law: Incident: Kansas Univeristy computer containing personal information hacked -- or scroll down a page or two.) Now CNET is reprting that George Mason University has seen hackers take personal information on more than thirty thousand students. Thirty thousand.

Hackers steal ID info from Virginia university | CNET News.com:

"George Mason University confirmed on Monday that the personal information of more than 30,000 students, faculty and staff had been nabbed by online intruders.

The attackers broke into a server that held details used on campus identity cards, the university said. Joy Hughes, the school's vice president for information technology, said in an internal e-mail sent over the weekend and seen by CNET News.com that 'the server contained the names, photos, Social Security numbers and (campus ID) numbers of all members of the Mason community who have identification cards.'... "