Louisiana State University System
Louisiana State Student, Faculty Information Left Unprotected For Two Years
Quick Facts
- Date: 7/17/2007
- Institution: Louisiana State University System
- Type of Incident: Unauthorized Disclosure
- Number Affected: 163,000
- Source: ESI
- Abstract Source: KATC
- Update Source: WDSU
- Update2 Source: The Privacy Podcast
Abstract
The Louisiana Board of Regents announced that it has determined that information on students and staff at universities within the Louisiana State University system were left available to unauthorized individuals for an unknown amount of time. This information included information such as the names and Social Security numbers on groups of individuals including all 10th grade students within Louisiana students between 2001 and 2003 that took the state's Educational Planning and Assessment Plan test as well as any individual employed within the state university system between 2000 and 2001. An investigation is still ongoing to help determine what exactly happened, but the information has been secured and there is no evidence that it was accessed by any unauthorized individuals. The board first learned of the problem from Richard Angelico, a reporter at WDSU-TV in New Orleans.
Update
According to WDSU, it appears that this incident exposed information on 80,000 inidividuals and the information was available for as long as two years.
Update2
ESI received an e-mail from the The Privacy Podcast about this incident. Aaron Titus, from The Privacy Podcast, was the individual that initially discovered the files containing information on 200,000 individuals on the Louisiana State Board of Regents. The total number of Social Security numbers contained in these files is 163,000.
