Rutgers University Releases 227 Student Records Online
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 14, 2007Media Contact: Aaron Titus
(202) 681-1686
PISCATAWAY, New Jersey. On August 31, 2007, the Liberty coalition discovered files posted on rutgers.edu that contain sensitive personal information. The four files appear to contain the full names, social security numbers, assignment scores, test scores, course grades, and other highly sensitive information for up to 227 students at Rutgers University. The files largely appear to be grading sheets for students of Wenxuan (Bill) Zhang, PhD Candidate/Teaching Assistant, Department of Computer Science.
Mr. Zhang, the University, and the FBI were all notified. Mr. Zhang acted immediately to take the files offline, and the university requested major search engines clear their caches, which appeared to clear after roughly two weeks.
Individuals affected by this exposure should immediately visit www.nationalidwatch.org and search for their names, to confirm what types of personal information were exposed. NationalIDWatch.org has a list of recommended steps victims should take.
About NationalIDWatch.org
National ID Watch is a search engine for personal information breaches. Sponsored by the Washington, DC non-profit Liberty Coalition, NationalIDWatch.org provides more than a million free personalized Identity Exposure Reports™ as a public service.
Each Identity Exposure Report (IXR) documents what types of personal information were exposed (such as Social Security Numbers, Birth Dates, Addresses, etc.), without revealing them. Each IXR also details the situation surrounding each exposure, and contact information of those responsible for the breach. Armed with this information, victims can further investigate, take action, or correct harm.