BYU Counseling Center Posts Sensitive Student Information Online
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 17, 2008Media Contact: Aaron Titus
(202) 669-2969
PROVO, Utah. The Brigham Young University's Counseling and Career Center appears to have exposed personal information of 89 BYU Medical school Applicants by placing their names and personal information on its website. The information, contained in an excel file named "MD-DO-Stats-2006.xls," contained full names, last three digits of social security numbers, gender, economic disadvantaged status, academic majors, race, MCAT scores, an indication of whether the applicant was accepted or rejected, and other academic information.
At least some of the information posted online is covered by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). When it was discovered by the Liberty Coalition in November, 2007, the original file had already been deleted from the BYU server, but part of the file remained in Google's Cache until early December, 2007.
Student applicants from the following universities were affected:
- Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
- Dartmouth Medical School
- Drexel University College of Medicine
- East TN State U., James H. Quillen Coll. of Med.
- Eastern Virginia Medical School
- Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
- Medical College of Wisconsin
- Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
- Saint Louis University School of Medicine
- SUNY Upstate Medical University
- Texas Tech Univ. Hlth. Sci. Ctr. Sch. of Medicine
- Ohio State Univ. Coll. of Med. & Pub. Hlth.
- University of Vermont College of Medicine
- Tulane University School of Medicine
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Science
- University of Alabama School of Medicine
- University of Minnesota Medical School-Minneapolis
- University of Minnesota School of Medicine Duluth
- University of Nevada School of Medicine
- University of Rochester School of Medicine
- University of Toledo College of Medicine
- University of Utah School of Medicine
- University of Washington School of Medicine
- University of Wisconsin
- Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
The University did not respond to the Liberty Coalition's notifications.
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.