March 7, 2008
Ohio U. Rebuts Claim of a Security Breach
This week, The Post, the Ohio University student newspaper, reported a security breach in the computer system that allowed outsiders access to photographs of students. Today the university’s chief information officer emphatically denied the charge.
“It’s been overblown,” Brice Bible told The Chronicle.
There was a directory containing photographs of students, Mr. Bible said, but contrary to the newspaper report it was not freely available from the Internet. The directory was protected, he said, and it contained no confidential information.
“There has been nothing exposed, and the information was non-descriptive to start with,” Mr. Bible said. “There is no sensitive data tied to this site.”
The directory was one used by resident assistants in university dormitories. They could use their passwords to get into the directory, and then right-click on a photo to get a window with the address of the entire directory. That address could then be shared with outsiders.
“But you would have to use your password to get it in the first place,” Mr. Bible said. “The only access was through abuse of authorized access.” And the right-click option has now been changed so the address is concealed, he said.
Mr. Bible sent an e-mail message earlier this week to students and staff informing them of the situation. No student has complained to him, he said, and he has even received some thank-you notes for the information.
The newspaper is standing by its story, and notes that its reporter did not get in with a password but by guessing extra words at the end of the regular RA Web site address, but Mr. Bible insists that it is not the complete story. “We support open journalistic inquiry,” he said. “And I don’t want to discourage any student from bringing any security concerns to my attention.” And the newspaper did just that. It just pushed other things too far, he concluded. —Josh Fischman
Posted on Friday March 7, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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I guess there is nothing else to write about AGAIN today? Mr. Bible is correct….the incident was NOT a breach! So find something else to report on.
— Huey Mar 7, 05:17 PM #