[geeks] Imbeciles all around

[Rob]

When are people going to learn that if someone entrusts you with PRIVATE
information you are honor bound to come up with a system that properly
respects that; even if that system involves computers.



Yale Tells FBI Princeton Hacked
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 9:07 a.m. ET


NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- The head of admissions at Princeton University was
suspended after his office was accused of improperly entering a Yale
University Web site where applicants can find out whether they were
accepted.

Yale officials notified the FBI on Thursday about 18 unauthorized log-ins to
the Web site that were traced back to computers at Princeton, including
computers in the admissions office.

``We're assessing the information to see if there is a federal violation,''
FBI spokeswoman Lisa Bull said.

Marilyn Marks, a spokeswoman for Princeton, said Thursday night that an
independent investigator was to arrive at the New Jersey campus Friday. She
said Stephen LeMenager, Princeton's associate dean and director of
admission, has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome
of the probe.

LeMenager said the school checked the site simply to see how secure it was.
Princeton gained access using information from students who had applied to
both schools.

``It was really an innocent way for us to check out the security,''
LeMenager told the Yale Daily News, which broke the story Thursday in its
online edition.

``That was our main concern of having an online notification system, that it
would be susceptible to people who had that information -- parents, guidance
counselors, and admissions officers at other schools.''

Attempts to reach LeMenager on Thursday night were unsuccessful. A telephone
message left for an S.E. LeMenager in Pennington, N.J., the only LeMenager
listed for the area, was not returned.

``The actions reported today by the Yale Daily News represent a serious
lapse of judgment by at least one member of our admissions staff,'' Marks
said. ``The improper use of information provided to the university in good
faith may have affected the ability of students to obtain information about
their admission to Yale, something we deeply regret.''

Yale said Princeton's actions violated the privacy of the students.

``We have therefore notified appropriate law enforcement authorities as well
as the applicants whose Web locations were accessed,'' said Dorothy K.
Robinson, Yale vice president and general counsel.

The Web site was activated in the spring so that undergraduate applicants
could find out if they got into Yale. Applicants could access the site by
using their Social Security numbers and birthdates. The site included links
to admissions information and personal data about the students.

This was the first year Yale used the Web site, which proved to be popular
with students. The day it went online in April, more than 9,700 applicants
had logged in, including 1,190 of the nearly 1,500 students who were
admitted.

If a student was admitted, the site flashed fireworks and a congratulatory
message. If the student did not get in, a message indicating that was
displayed.

The site included a notice that only students, not parents or others, may
access the site, and it warned that Yale would investigate and act on any
unauthorized use.

According to Yale officials, Princeton admissions staffers accessed some
applicants' files before the students themselves had seen them. When those
students went to the site they weren't automatically directed to the screen
indicating whether they were accepted, since that screen only comes up at
first login.

One of the students whose account was improperly accessed, Scott Grzenczyk
of St. Louis, told The Washington Post that he was expecting ``an apology or
something along those lines'' from Princeton.

The 18-year-old high school senior was rejected by Yale. He plans to attend
Princeton.