Harvard hacker exposes personal information of applicants, others
March 13, 2008
The Boston Herald
By Donna Goodison
The personal information of some 10,000 Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences students and applicants may have been breached by a hacker who gained access to the school's Web server.
Harvard said it discovered the data breach last month but that its initial investigation did not reveal its full extent. It's now notifying all students whose information may have been compromised.
The server held summaries of fall 2007 admissions applicants to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and housing applicants for the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 academic years. That information included approximately 6,600 admissions candidates' names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, test scores, previous schools attended and school records.
The remainder of the admissions data that was accessed did not involve Social Security numbers, but Harvard said data from 500 students applying for housing included their Harvard University ID numbers. In addition, about 13 students̢۪ housing application summaries contained information about their personal health, including food allergies.
The school will pay for identity theft recovery services from Kroll Inc. for those students and applicants whose Social Security numbers or Harvard University ID numbers may have been accessed. The free services will include helping students obtain copies of their credit reports and setting up credit-monitoring services and fraud alerts.
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