Re: (update): Campus radio station accuses BU of lax security with personal information

[macwheel99 () wowway com]

People who witness security breaches, crimes, risks, something on fire, 
whatever, be they IT professionals, or journalists, or people who live or 
work there:

we all should, as soon as possible, report it to proper authorities, 
including the remark that we are ALSO planning to inform the news media, 
or "this goes on the Internet in 1 hour."

Editors maybe should inform the police
"our 9 pm news will report a crime you may not yet be aware of ... would you 
like to comment on it?"

Some crimes, perhaps phoning 911 is not the best place.

I have on occasion, driven to the nearest police station, to report a 
problem, like a traffic light malfunctioning so that on every 8th cycle it 
is green all directions.

Proper authorities then have option of requesting delay of the news release 
for some reasonable time period until the problem has been patched.

Otherwise, crooks watching the news might act on the information before the 
proper authorities figure out that they need to take preventative action

The whistle blower witness should be protected, to encourage more such 
persons.

Suppose I witness some crime in progress.  Am I to keep silent, not get 
involved, because maybe being a crime witness is illegal?

When we are released by the authorities to inform the public, we would also 
say how long we had to keep silent, so the people then know how long the 
relevant authorities now take to patch problems.

Most HR offices have glass windows, that are easily broken. 
Who do we tell about those easily accessible paper records?
We do not have to physically enter the office to be a witness.

Al Mac

> http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20090312/NEWS01/903120377
>
> An incident that a campus radio station is calling a "titanic breach 
> of security" is now being treated as a crime by Binghamton 
> University authorities.
>
> Law enforcement officials have launched a criminal investigation 
> after learning a reporter from WHRW gained access to a storage room 
> where documents containing personal information -- such as Social 
> Security numbers and credit card numbers -- were kept. The Broome 
> County District Attorney has been consulted about possible charges,
>  university spokeswoman Gail Glover said.
>
> The station's news director said the door to the room in the Lecture 
> Hall complex wasn't locked, and its latch was taped so it would 
> remain open. In the room, the reporter found file cabinets and piles 
> of documents that contained personal information of students and 
> their parents dating back at least a decade, said Robert Glass, news 
> director for WHRW.
>
> "Despite having a record of jeopardizing personal information and 
> promising that it would take extensive measures to make sure it 
> would never happen again," university officials still failed to 
> secure the private documents, he said. Now, they're trying to blame 
> the person who found it.
>
> Glass declined to identify the reporter.
>
> [...]
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CREDANT Technologies, a leader in data security, offers advanced data encryption solutions.
Protect sensitive data on desktops, laptops, smartphones and USB sticks transparently 
across your enterprise to ensure regulatory compliance.
http://www.credant.com/stopdataloss