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D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students

washingtonpost.com

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Re: D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students

#2

    > determined that one person downloaded the document from
    > the website. That person was part of a community
    > organization that has verbally agreed to delete the
    > document, Peabody said.
Fortunate that they were able to do that; considerably softens the blow.

Re: D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students

#3
If any of the DC public school people want help protecting their student records, I will donate pro-bono hours.

There's one technique that is powerful and rare, which is translucent data access. It's ideal for identifying memberships and trends, such as "how many students are in a class each year" while protecting personally identifying information. A simple common example is a one-way hash function that lets an app confirm a password without needing to store the password in plain text.

Re: D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students

#4
post #3

If any of the DC public school people want help protecting their student records, I will donate pro-bono hours. There's one technique that is powerful and rare, which is translucent data access. It's ideal for identifying memberships and trends, such as "how many students are in a class each year" while protecting personally identifying information. A simple common example is a one-way hash function that lets an app…

Send me a ping if you're interested with helping schools with their data - me[at]smaili.org

Re: D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students

#5
Feel there is really no way to prevent this. This was doubtfully uploaded knowingly (or possibly with ignorance). Data dumps occur all the time. As a file, they can too easily be shared. For sure, the school should work on increasing their awareness of handling secure data. But, in the end, nothing would really prevent this from happing again.

Re: D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students

#6
post #4
post #3

If any of the DC public school people want help protecting their student records, I will donate pro-bono hours. There's one technique that is powerful and rare, which is translucent data access. It's ideal for identifying memberships and trends, such as "how many students are in a class each year" while protecting personally identifying information. A simple common example is a one-way hash function that lets an app…

Send me a ping if you're interested with helping schools with their data - me[at]smaili.org

How exactly are you helping schools and their data?

Re: D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students

#7
In my 2nd year of university the chair of the CS department shared an excel file via email containing the private data of all the CS students. ID numbers, addresses, phone numbers, first/last names.

He claimed it was meant for an office assistant but somehow he blasted it to both the BS and MS student lists. I doubt he got more than a slap on the wrist as he remained the chair for another 2-3 years.

Re: D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students

#8
post #5

Feel there is really no way to prevent this. This was doubtfully uploaded knowingly (or possibly with ignorance). Data dumps occur all the time. As a file, they can too easily be shared. For sure, the school should work on increasing their awareness of handling secure data. But, in the end, nothing would really prevent this from happing again.

We do SSL and content inspection of uploads to unexcepted sites to prevent this sort of thing where I work.

Re: D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students

#9
post #7

In my 2nd year of university the chair of the CS department shared an excel file via email containing the private data of all the CS students. ID numbers, addresses, phone numbers, first/last names. He claimed it was meant for an office assistant but somehow he blasted it to both the BS and MS student lists. I doubt he got more than a slap on the wrist as he remained the chair for another 2-3 years.

At my university, a publicly accessible file on the university systems listed addresses, phone numbers, and names for all students, not just those of a particular department. Leaking the same information in an email would have been superfluous. Are those supposed to be secret?

Re: D.C. accidentally uploads private data of 12,000 students

#10
post #7

In my 2nd year of university the chair of the CS department shared an excel file via email containing the private data of all the CS students. ID numbers, addresses, phone numbers, first/last names. He claimed it was meant for an office assistant but somehow he blasted it to both the BS and MS student lists. I doubt he got more than a slap on the wrist as he remained the chair for another 2-3 years.

This information is in fact public record unless you have a FERPA opt-out in effect.
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