Tomorrow’s daily newspapers will likely have stories about one of the largest data security breaches in U.S. history, a database with 800,000 student records at UCLA. Here’s the university’s press release about the breach. According to The Lede, the NYT blog: #

The amount of personal data held by universities often make them a particularly juicy target for hackers. And lax network security — sometimes in place to facilitate communication across departments and schools and institutes, all linked under a rangy university system — can make them easy targets. #

It’s sad that so many college newspapers are finished publishing for the fall semester, because this is a story that begs to be localized and given context at every college campus. It’s also a good opportunity to do some enterprise stories on identity theft and what to do if your identity is stolen (quick answer: waste a lot of time banging your head against bureaucratic walls). #

The slowly changing practice of using social security numbers for student IDs is finally dwindling (from what I’ve been able to tell, anyway), but network security is an ongoing concern. #

Update: corrected information in para. 1.  #

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