Schools battle personal data hacks.

The article focuses on the increasing data breach of personal information in schools in the U.S. Michigan State disclosed earlier in July 2005 that an attack on a server at the College of Education might have compromised Social Security numbers of more than 27,000 students. SecurityFocus.com reported in July 2005 about a programming error in the University of Southern California's online student application system that opened a hole into a database of personal information. The university confirmed that the database had about 2,70,000 records with names and Social Security numbers. So far, many attackers do not seem to be targeting school databases for identity theft, according to some IT executives. But when hacked departmental servers, desktop and laptop PCs also contain personal information, the exploit becomes a much bigger headache for campus IT professionals. The drive to protect personal data forces schools to conduct audits to find out who is keeping what information where. In 2004, a NIU teaching assistant published a local Web page for his students, with information about their grades.